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Honest Man on a Train to Paris – Honesty Story #1

January 23rd, 2007

This is my first blog post so I decided to begin with a personal anecdote. I will admit though that I found myself struggling to come up with one of the many stories I thought would easily come to mind. Then again, it probably shouldn’t surprise me, when most of the news I read in the paper, hear on the radio and see on TV is either bad news or gossip. It is as if good news and positive stories just end up at the bottom of the pile, obscured by negative news.

So, here is my first story about honesty…

This first story took place several years ago on a train to Paris. I had a few days off at the end of a business trip to France and decided to visit a good friend of mine in Paris. It was going to be my first time visiting this famous city, so I was pretty excited.

After looking at the map on the wall of the train several times and confirming the next stop was mine, I rushed to the exit. When the train came to a stop, I pushed through the people getting on and those getting off, and at last I was in Paris. I began walking away when I heard a man shout from the train (I don’t think the shout was in any particular language, it was more like a “hey” type expression). I looked back and saw a man holding my laptop bag. My heart immediately raced as I thought about all the information I had in the laptop and how close I had been to losing it. He handed me the laptop and I thanked him profusely in as many languages as I could think of at that moment…hopefully, one of those was French.

I couldn’t believe I had almost left behind my company’s laptop and almost ruined my whole vacation. Thanks to the honesty of a stranger, I was able to enjoy the rest of my trip catching up with my friend and sightseeing.

(Photo Eurostar Group Ltd.)