The Face of Trustworthiness

My “Face of Trustworthiness” is a Muslim man.

I only saw him once; he was poor and had not even one cent in his pocket. This is what happened                  

                                                        

I was doing the Hospital part of the training, required by Portuguese Law, to become a Pharmacist, after completing the degree (I was in an army Hospital).

One Monday, some colleagues and I, went to have breakfast, and I remember thinking it was better not to take such a big wallet; the wallet never went back after breakfast, although I did not realize it.  

 

 

At lunchtime, needing to pay, where was the wallet? There was serious trouble ahead.

Everybody helped checking all the facility, including waste, toilets, at least, to see if it was possible to find the documents, but we found nothing. Cards were immediately cancelled, yet, contrary to what I would normally do, I decided to wait until Wednesday before going to the police and report the stolen documents.

Wednesday, father, who was abroad and knew nothing about this, rings

 

 

and says to call person X at place Y (another army facility).  Astonished, I listen to a man asking if I could pick up the wallet. This man was a Muslim, African, from Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony. He had recently arrived in Portugal, and was staying at an army facility. He had no money, just tickets for transports and to the hospital exams, where he had gone, for the first time, on Monday, with a voucher to lunch, and happened to seat where I sat the same morning. He saw the wallet and thought he should give it to the cashier; he thought better and decided to deliver it to the real owner. That was not easy at all.

 

                                  

To cut a long story short, after many quests, he decided to go to the main radio station, told his story and, amazing as it might seem, the people there let him broadcast he had the wallet of person this and that. My parent’s housekeeper heard it on the radio, and called my parents, (travelling in foreign lands). Here we get back to father’s strange call, mentioned above. I went to pick the wallet and tried to give him some reward; the man would not hear of it; he just requested, if it was possible for me, to go by the Muslim house of prayers and give him a hike.

 

 

He had no money but the wallet had a lot because I had to pay for some expensive books that day. Nothing was missing. Character means making the hard choices and avoiding temptation. This was a man of character.

 

“Ethics are like breathing.”

This is my own saying; no matter what culture you are from, what race, what creed, you have ethics or not; if you have them, you are blessed.