As any avid Upworthy reader will tell you—we have our fair share of heartwarming stories involving strangers returning lost items to their owners. It’s just such a perfect example of humanity at its best.
But this story has all that, plus an extra layer of feel-good.
Here’s what happened:
An Englishwoman named Georgia Girelli, had lost her purse and was “crying her eyes out” because of her missing item.
Luckily, the man who found it at a gas station ventured up to her house to return it. Girelli wasn’t home at the time, but her doorbell cam captured their entire exchange.
In the clip (shared to Reddit/MadeMeSmile) the man shared that he had intended to wait until morning to return the bag, but then remembered the inconsolable distress felt by an ex who was in a similar situation, and wanted to help Girelli avoid feeling that kind of stress.
Moved by his thoughtfulness, Girelli insisted on paying the man back, even telling him to take some money out of the purse itself.
But the man simply said, “Nah, just pay it forward. Just do something nice for the next person.”
Before exiting, the man shared that “I’m a firefighter, I don’t need money for doing a good deed.”
Of course, you can read all this. But then you miss the accents and use of words like “wheelie bin” that might just give you your “Ted Lasso” fix. The guy even looks like Roy Kent, for goodness sake.
Watch below:
Stranger finds lost bag and returns it to the owner
byu/Solo_Odyssey inMadeMeSmile
It’s nice enough that this man made the effort to return Girelli’s purse, even nicer that he returned it as soon as possible. But then there’s that extra lesson of spreading kindness.
We all know that doing this helps make the world a better place, and makes us feel pretty damn good in return. But it can be easy to miss opportunities to actually do it. So seeing almost effortless examples can maybe help bolster our resolve. And heaven bless the individuals who set the example.