"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
A Lost Passport Recovered: The Compassion of a Chinese Man for a Stranger
by Jeff Lindsay
Recently
as I was about to begin the 40-minute journey home from a priesthood
training meeting for the Shanghai International District, I had a
puzzling phone call from my wife. She was on her way to People's
Square in downtown Shanghai to meet a Chinese-speaking stranger who
had called her.
The
man told her he was trying to reach D., giving the full name of an
American woman my wife had just met at sacrament meeting the previous
week. He said he had D.'s passport and wanted to return it.
That
sounded crazy, but my wife called our remarkably well organized
Relief Society president, who was able to track down D.'s phone
number, and Kendra was then able to call D. and verify that her
passport with her whole wallet had just been stolen that day at one
of Shanghai's most popular attractions, Yu Garden.
My
wife called the man back, and asked him to wait as she and D. got
together and took a taxi to People's Square in hopes of
getting the stolen passport back.
A
lost or stolen passport in a foreign country can be a real nightmare.
American passports are a real prize for thieves, having a street
value (so I've heard) of more than $5,000. For those of us living in
China, replacing the passport and visa once stolen can cost almost
that much as it will require two trips outside of the country and
some significant fees. It can completely disrupt your plans and make
a mess of things instantly.
We
experienced this when my wife's passport was lost or stolen on the
streets of Shanghai a couple years ago. We don't want that to happen
to anyone else, so we were anxious to help D. get hers back, if
possible.
D.
had just come to Shanghai for a few weeks. At church, my wife had
introduced herself and gave D. her card, which she had placed in her
wallet. My wife's card was the only thing in the wallet with a phone
number on it.
When
I learned what was happening, I volunteered to come to People's
Square also, already being a little closer than she was. The man had
already been waiting for some time and we didn't want him to give up
and leave before someone could meet him and discuss the passport.
At
the same time, I worried that it might be a scam. In any case, I
wanted to be there to help.
I
arrived first but there was no sign of the man. My wife and D. came
later. After calling him again, we finally managed to meet. He was
skinny, too skinny in my opinion, possibly from working too hard and
eating too little to save money for his distant family.
To
our surprise, he wasn't asking for some huge sum of money. He simply
handed D. her passport and told the story of how he recovered it. He
had spent around four hours trying to get it back to its owner.
The
man is a worker from inner China. He was at Yu Garden when he saw a
group of children he identified as being from Xinjiang Province (a
poor western province) surround D. begging for money. She kindly took
some cash out of her wallet and gave it to them.
As
she put her wallet back in her bag, it was visible and unshielded for
just a moment, long enough for one of them to snatch the wallet and
run off. The man saw this happen and chased after the kids.
He
saw them pull the cash out of the wallet and then throw the wallet
against a wall as they rushed away, possibly unaware that they were
discarding a valuable passport. On the other hand, if they were
caught, the passport would be clear evidence of theft, so maybe they
or their managers view passports as too risky.
The
man retrieved the cash-free wallet and then began the process of
finding its owner, who apparently was out of sight by now. His only
clear lead was the card with my wife's name and number.
He
spent a big part of his day working and waiting to get the passport
and wallet back to their owner. He asked for nothing, but we could
sense that this was a man living a frugal life who could use a cash
reward, so we urged him to accept some cash. We were glad he accepted
it.
I
asked him why he would do so much to help a stranger get her wallet
and passport back. He explained that he is Christian, and that he
felt that Chinese people needed to show kindness toward foreigners.
He talked about that principle at length.
God
bless him for being honest and for having compassion for a stranger
who was about to have a very bad day if he did the easy thing and
didn't get involved.
A
fear of being involved is one of China's major problems, in my
opinion. Many people tell their kids to just walk away and stay out
of trouble instead of getting involved when they see strangers having
problems. That attitude has led to some terribly embarrassing
incidents that have shamed millions of Chinese people. I'm glad this
man responded to a higher law.
Thanks
to one man's compassion and patience, an American woman's stolen and
discarded passport was returned within a few hours of its loss, and a
nightmarish situation became a cause for gratitude.
Had
my wife not given D. her card that was kept conveniently in the
wallet for the Chinese man to discover, he would not have reached D.
through us. Had we been out of town, as we often are, we might not
have been able to help.
Since
D. does not speak much Chinese, some help was needed. It was also a
real blessing that the Relief Society president was able to track
down D. rather quickly.
We
get lots of odd calls in Chinese from strangers and often conclude
that they are salesman or scammers, so we often just say "Not
interested" and hang up promptly. It was yet another blessing
that my wife took the call seriously and could understand the man,
thanks to her steady diligence in studying the language.
Although
many people might choose to not get involved, many Chinese people
share the compassion and honesty exemplified by our new friend.
Christians don't have a monopoly on such traits, but we were pleased
to learn that he was Christian. He was living up to the ideals of his
religion well. I hope we can all learn from his example.
D. on the left, my wife on the right, and the kind Chinese man who spent a big part of his free time on a Sunday returning D.'s passport.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.