One good turn

The story of the lost suitcase, the good Samaritan and the elephant in the room

Thomas was sitting quietly waiting for me on a beaten up TFL chair outside the Station Supervisor’s office at Caledonian Road. This was last week.

Not 20 minutes before I had been running up the escalator at Kings Cross / St Pancras changing from the Piccadilly to the Metropolitan. I had my briefcase over my shoulder, and was texting, when I suddenly realised that there wasn’t another briefcase over the other shoulder.

To cut a long story short, the Supervisor at Kings Cross was hugely helpful when I told him I must have left briefcase #2 on a Piccadilly Line train. He calmed me down, and jumped into active service mode calling all the stations up the line.

Within 10 minutes the bag had been located, handed in by a customer. I sped to Caledonian Road and provided my ID, to be told by the Supervisor there that, uniquely in his long experience, the customer who had found my bag and handed it in, insisted on waiting till I arrived, so that he could see me being reunited with it.

I asked Thomas if there was anything I could do for him. ‘Absolutely not’, he said, ‘I just wanted to make sure that you got the bag back, as there might have been something important in it’. How right he was. Crucial papers that might not look much to an outsider – but which are the stuff of life for your friendly jobbing consultant.

Thomas had brought with him from his native Nigeria a transparent honesty and kindness that was humbling. Why should we be surprised when someone does us a good turn? Have our expectations fallen to the extent that selfless behaviour, and someone putting themselves out for you should be remarkable. I must say I think that is the case. Expectations are low. It  wasn’t till we walked back to the platform together that I realised that Thomas had alighted at Caledonian Road purely and simply to return the bag as fast as possible – not because it was his destination.

Christ told the parable of the Good Samaritan for several reasons. First to explain that love for your neighbour is an active thing, not something passive. Secondly, because the Jews of his time had a poor image of people from Samaria, and he wanted to correct an unfair prejudice.

Immigration is the elephant in the room, or on the tube, that no one much wants to talk about. A past client of mine, of Indian origin who is British and has lived in the UK for many years, was incandescent last month to have been stopped on a tube train and asked for his papers. Horrible for him – and horrible to hear about.

It is good that from time to time nice things happen. It warmed my heart. I hope it warms yours a little too.

Read more from David Wethey.