Speechless
One of my advanced (and I mention that because it means that he knew exactly what he was saying) students, an older man in his 70's, shared the following story in class last week. While out shopping about two weeks ago, he found a ¥10,000 (~ $92) bill in the parking lot in front of a store and observed that there was no one in the vicinity to whom it could possibly belong. Awesome, that's a lucky day. Except for one thing. When I asked what he did with money, he replied that he took it to the police station and was therefore hoping that he would get it back in six months. (Insert blank expression on reader's face.) Why would anyone take any money they found, at least in such a relatively small quantity, to the police station to turn it in and then wait for six months in the hopes that no one claimed it? Amazingly, the other student in the class (also very advanced) just sat there, nodding her head along in agreement, signalling to me that, in Japan, that is exactly what you do if you find any money on the ground. You take it to the police station and fill out a form and if no one claims it within six months, it's yours. Unbelievable. More than any other experience thus far, this story has actually made me sit back and say 'Wow, the Japanese really are a completely different people.' That sort of selflessness is just astounding and completely unfathomable to the average Westerner. To wit: you have no idea how tempting it is to just walk down to the station myself and claim it. After all, I do know where he was when he found it. Too bad I don't know the time or day of the week though.
Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 09:06PM
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Reader Comments (2)
I myself found 10,000yen bills twice and took them to the police stations and received the amount six-month later;->