Returns Wallet with 2,700 Dollars

The News:
A homeless person found… a wallet with 2,700 dollars, checks and several credit cards in a square of the Argentine province of Salta and returned it to his owner… 42-year-old Ricardo Ismael Medina, a man who survives selling cardboards and plastic that finds in the streets, found the 'treasure' under a bench in a square… “The truth is that I did not hesitate a moment to return it because it was something that wasn’t mine and if my friends had found out that I keep something not mine, they would turn around their faces”, said to the press Medina, who lives in an improvised house to the side of a monument, along with a group of dogs and eleven cats… On having discovered that inside the wallet there were one thousand and 100 dollars and 5 thousand Argentine pesos (approximately one thousand 600 dollars), he went to a nearby police office to denounce the find, and soon there was located the lucky owner of the wallet, who granted to Medina a reward of 300 Argentine pesos (96.7 dollars). (reforma.com)

Comment:
Is still there someone who doubts that honest people exist? Ricardo Ismael not only is honest, but a real hero. Can you imagine the happiness of the owner when he recovered his wallet? It is not mentioned why he was carrying so much money, but unless he belongs to the Forbes richest men’s list, nobody can spare 2,700 dollars.

Many people, perhaps the majority, still believes that money brings happiness, or at least, facilitate it. False! Generally the people get entangled in vicious circles to obtain more money that will increase needs that will require more money, and so on, until everything ends in ruins, destruction, or bitterness. And please note that I said “generally.” There is no law that prohibits rich people to be happy; it’s only that they achieve it “no matter” the money.

Generally the people with a lot of money worry more about taking care of their patrimony, often they have to hire bodyguards for personal protection and that of their relatives, social commitments remove them from family life and the spouse and children suffer for it, they lose contact with the human side of their employees and normally sacrifice compassion in exchange for efficiency, they lose notion of the social reality and poverty of the world, etc., not for nothing Jesus said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25).

The man in the news remained more satisfied with 97 reward dollars that if he had kept the wallet, which would produce in him nervousness, he would had to lie to his friends, hide from them and perhaps lose his friendship. Without doubt he chose his friends instead of a bunch of dollars. Wouldn’t you have done the same? Shouldn’t you do the same, in case of facing a similar dilemma?

Did you ever give money to a friend and he never returned it to you? And did the friendship cool down later? Mhh! I suppose that I am going in the wrong direction… I am guessing here, but I would be ready to bet that our hero Ricardo Ismael shared the 97 dollars of the reward with his dogs and cats and felt happy when they waged the tail and purred.

What the Bible Says:
And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:8-10).

How can we be vaccinated against the love of money? Paul offers us some advice: (1) let’s be satisfied with what we possess. Although we can plan to change our car, that shouldn’t make us take decisions that overwhelm us. (2) Let’s be careful of the methods about which we are thinking to make more money. (3) Let’s love the people more that the money and (4) let’s look for God more.

And a fifth advice, not from Paul, but indirect from Ricardo Ismael: let's adopt dogs and cats.