Do You Have Your Wallet

莱克斯曼·弗兰克/Laksman Frank

这是一个发生在我上学时候的故事，它对我的生活产生了巨大影响。在这个故事中，老师没有大喊大叫，没有布置家庭作业，没有考试，甚至没有评定功课成绩。然而，那是最有成效的教学方法，只有富有爱心的人才能做到。

当发现钱包丢了以后，我说的第一句话就是：“我的钱包！放哪里了？”我回想了好几秒钟，然后才想起是落在图书馆了，而且是在图书馆的公共洗手间！我去洗手间的时候，还看见它在架子上，我记得很清楚。

图书馆现在已经闭馆了，我不得不第二天早晨再去找。第二天一到图书馆，我就看到洗手间里干净明亮，洗手台擦得一尘不染，地板反射出亮光。我仍然记得，那是我第一次痛恨看到洗手间如此干净。我走了出去，看着镜子中的自己，对着面前这个爱忘事的笨蛋摇了摇头。

现在，我只能寄望于洗手间的清洁工发现钱包了。于是，我向一位坐在前台看书的上了年纪的夫人走去，我表现得很有礼貌。我问她昨天是否有人在洗手间捡到一个钱包，她并没有立即回答我，直到读到一个认为可以中断的地方才停了下来。接着，她眯着眼睛，从鼻梁上架着的厚厚的黑色眼镜后面看了看我。她轻轻地叹了一口气，缓缓地从舒服的座椅上挣扎下来，走进一个门口不见了。片刻之后，她又回到了前台。

“没有。”

除此之外，她没说其他的。我迅速地向她道谢，然后就走开了。

我在想，如果我捡到了一个钱包，里面装着60美元、一张电话卡和许多别人无法使用的私人物品，我会怎么办呢？我的钱包已经丢了，最终，我不得不接受这个事实。

银行卡和证件挂失一周之后，我收到一个神秘的包裹。我确信那就是我的钱包！而且一件物品也没少，这真是令人惊讶！但有点儿不一样。我在钱包的一个夹层里，发现一张从来没有见过的折叠起来的黄色小纸条。我慢慢地展开那张纸条，一枚铜质的基督徽章掉落到我的手里。那张纸条上写着这样的话：

“不管你的宗教信仰是什么，把这枚徽章永远带在身上。这样，上个星期守护你的天使将会一直伴随你。”

寄这个包裹的人甚至没有留下回信地址，因此，我也不知道应该向谁致谢。我感觉到，这是世间少有的善良之举。

从那天开始，我向自己发誓，无论何时，只要我能够做到，我都会去帮助别人，就像帮助我的那个人一样。我要把那个人当作自己的榜样，让别人也能体会到我打开包裹时的那种喜悦之情。

This is a story about a learning experience that had a big effect on the way that I live my life. The teacher in the story did not scream， assign homework， give me tests or even grade me on my work. I was taught by one of the most effective methods of teaching， one that only people with lots of love can do.

"My wallet！ Where is it？" were my first words when I found out my wallet was missing. I searched my memory for a few good seconds， then realized that I had left my precious wallet at the library. Not only did I leave it at the library， but I had left it in the library's public restroom！ I distinctly remembered seeing it on the shelf as I went to the bathroom.

Because the library was now closed， I had to wait until the next morning to begin my search. When I got there the next day， all I found was a sparkling clean restroom， its counters clean and its floors shiny white. This was the first time I could remember ever hating to see a clean bathroom. As I walked out， I looked at myself in the mirror and shook my head at the forgetful fool in front of me.

Now all I could hope for was that the person who cleaned the restroom had found my wallet. So I politely approached an old lady reading her book at the front desk. I asked her if a wallet had been found in the bathroom yesterday. She didn't answer me until she found a good place to pull herself away from her book. Then she peered at me from behind the thick black glasses parked on her nose. Letting out a quiet sigh， she slowly struggled out of her comfortable sitting position. She walked through a door and vanished for a moment. Then she came back to the desk.

"No."

That was that. I quickly thanked her and walked off.

I wondered what I would do if I had found a wallet containing sixty dollars， a phone card and many other irreplaceable personal items. Finally， I painfully accepted the fact that my wallet was gone.

A week later， after I had canceled my bank card and reported my license missing， I received a mysterious package in the mail. Sure enough， it was my wallet！ And most amazingly， nothing was missing！ But something was different about it. There was a little yellow sheet of paper folded up in one of the wallet pockets that had not been there before. I slowly unfolded the paper. Into my hand fell a little copper medallion of Christ. The letter read something like this：

Always keep this medallion with you， no matter what your religion is， so that the angel that was watching over you last week will always be close.

This person didn't even leave a return address. So I couldn't thank whoever it was. I felt that this was an act of pure kindness that was extremely rare.

From that day on， I promised myself that whenever I am in a situation where I can help others the way that this person helped me， I will follow this example and make them as happy as I was when I opened that package！