a little something about karma

Last Wednesday, I posted about a great NGO in Cambodia. That night, I decided to go to my climbing gym, where I was going to meet a friend. To get there, I take the yellow line train past several stops, and then I switch to the blue line train, and get off at the second stop (it happens to be the second to last stop). To take metro in DC, it is most convenient to carry a Smartrip card, which you just wave over the sensor to get in and out of the system. I keep mine in my wallet.

On this particular night, I took out my wallet, swiped my card, and proceeded down to the train. At my switching stop, I got off, and waited for the blue line. Got to my final destination, came out to the turnstile, and proceeded to pull out my wallet.

Except I didn’t have my wallet. At some point during this ride, I lost my wallet. Normally, I put it back in my bag or in my coat pocket, but this time I did neither. Now, without my wallet, I can’t get out of the metro system as you have to swipe the Smartrip card again. But more importantly, losing a wallet really sucks. You have to cancel credit cards (that someone is probably using), debit cards, and other cards. You have to get everything replaced (getting a new drivers license in DC is a terrible process). Not to mention that you are now out whatever amount of cash you have in your possession.

So I went to the station manager and explained my problem. He called the blue line train conductor, who said he would do the walkthrough when he reached the last stop. I mentioned that I was also on the yellow line, so he called the end station of the yellow line. Lo and behold, the station manager at that end was in possession of my wallet. So, I hopped back on the train and made my way down to that station to pick up my wallet.

So here is where a little good karma earlier in my day helped me out. Not only is that other station quite close, but amazingly, some kind soul had actually had the compassion to turn my wallet in. When I got there, the station manager handed it to me and asked me to check it. I looked and all my cards were in there. The only thing missing was $4 in cash (which happened to be all I was carrying) - we’ll call it a finders’ fee. After all, it’s good to still be a little humble, despite how great my karma might be.