Upon finding a wallet full of money

Yoursquore walking down a crowded avenue when a man in front of you drops a wallet What would you doMost people would not think twice before reaching down to pick it up and shouting to the stranger ldquoHey mister your walletrdquoWhat if the stranger is nowhere to be seen What if the wallet is bulging with money What if yoursquore in say Ethiopia and donrsquot speak Amharic What nowHerersquos my story fresh from last weekThe first thing I saw entering the Bangkok taxi was the wallet behind the driverrsquos seat It was longish and embroidered with a fake designer logo Within was 11000 Thai baht about Rs 24000 and an insurance card with a name and policy number Reading Thai slowly I soon deciphered the name as Mr TonmaiNo one would know or ever find out if I quietly pocketed the money It wouldnrsquot be theft since the wallet was already lost when I found it Technically I was not causing harm or loss to anyoneIt was nearly half my monthly rentThen again I had the rare chance here to be honest I have always been fascinated by the kindness of strangers but to be honest received it more than given it Here was my chance to do unto others All I had to do was call the insurance companyA fascinating 2012 study on kindness by Harvard professor Dr David G Rand reached an intriguing conclusion human beings react instinctively with kindness in such situations However as they think more about it the more selfish their decision becomes Quick decisions are altruistic slow decisions become more selfservingBut pushing me to be kind was also my own experience A complete stranger called Parvez Handa an Indian mining engineer in saffron robes and a godlike beard had given me 50 at Lusaka airport to help me get a visa knowing he would never get it backAnother time Irsquod left my Canon camera in a taxi and entered Bangkokrsquos ShangriLa Hotel for a family lunch on my birthday An hour later the taxi driver was back with my camera Without knowing my name or whereabouts hersquod combed through the hotelrsquos restaurants until he found meI decided to follow my instinct Minutes after picking up Tonmairsquos wallet I was talking to the insurance company explaining that Irsquod found money belonging to one of their customers and that he should call me back I shared my phone number and asked them to assure Mr Tonmai that his 11000 baht was intactAn hour or so later a woman called back Tonmai was away at work she said but shersquod pass the message on whenmdashand ifmdashhe called This was strange why couldnrsquot the insurance company reach Tonmai directly Who was the womanShe was a baker it turned out and Tonmairsquos exboss Hersquod left the job and was no longer covered by the bakeryrsquos group insuranceMeanwhile my mind was in overdrive Irsquod already foolishly disclosed my phone number and the sum Irsquod found What if the claimant insisted there had been more than 11000 and accused me of theft What if some random hustler claiming to be Tonmai took the moneymdashand the real Tonmai showed up laterLate in the evening a man purporting to be Tonmai called He only spoke Thai but with translation help from a friend I insisted on seeing his identification A passport with a photo was WhatsAppedI realised Tonmai was LaotianFriends and others had advice The building office said that as a foreigner I should just hand the wallet over to the Royal Thai police and let Tonmai claim it from them But I feared that as a migrant worker he might just face harassmentmdashand possibly be forced to pay a bribeI eventually met Tonmai at a nearby McDonaldrsquos He was a contract labourer short masked and not a man of many words My nitpicking mind suggested I needed to match his face with his passportldquoPlease take off your maskrdquo I said brusquely instantly regretting my tone Kindness should not sound so harsh an inner voice saidAfter hersquod signed a letter of receipt a friend videotaped the handover I knew I was doing the right thing but inside I was petrified that I might be walking into a trap I felt suspicious and wary not kindThen something unexpected happened This man living from hand to mouth in a foreign country to feed a family far away began slowly counting his money again When he had separated 5000 baht he timidly extended it towards meI backed away ldquoNo no pleaserdquo I said ldquoNo reward is neededrdquo I bowed my head and joined my hands in a Thai sawasdeeWhen I raised my head I saw Tonmai shaking It took me a moment to realise that he was crying with happinessHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper