There are still honest people out there

4 weeks ago, myself and my wife were away for the weekend break - we travelled back to a city where we lived before we got married.

While I lived there in that city - I used buy a lot of stuff from a particular bike shop in that city.
So on our weekend trip, I decided to visit that particular shop to say hello to the owner and to perhaps buy some stuff there.

I had € 200.00 cash on me and after looking at some stuff, I only spent € 50.00, which left me with €150.00 cash (I'd hoped that the shop would have had a selection of jerseys...but it hadn't).
I got back to our hotel and found that € 150.00 I thought I had, was gone.

I retraced my steps since leaving that bike shop and I phoned each location where I had been to see if the money had been found or handed in.
I phoned the bike shop and the owner went over to the place where I had been, in the shop, but he said that there was no sign of the cash.
The bike shop owner said that no money had been handed in.
I thanked him for his help and basically I wrote off any chance of the money
coming back to me.

This morning, I was in that same bike shop and when the owner saw me, he called me aside.
He told me that subsequent to my phone call - the next day, he had found
€ 150.00, under the rearwheel of a Pinarello bike, but he had not got my mobile number to tell me that he had found it!
All I can say is that the guy is a very very honest person.
Where would you get honesty like that?
He could have said nothing and I wouldn't have been any wiser.

I insisted that he take € 50.00, by way of thanks, but he wouldn't accept it.
I therefore insisted on buying € 150.00 worth of stuff (helmet, tyres) and I gave his repair guys € 50.00 to get themselves a few pints tonight.
(repair guys are young foreign nationals - over here working in his workshop).

So thanks Joe for your generosity : a lot of LBS get adverse press here and in other fora : when something good happens I think people should know about it.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

Thats awesome, kind people are still out there, even though it may seem bleak

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“(Training) doesn't get easier; you just get faster”
-Greg Lemond

That's a nice story. It never hurts to be reminded that people with integrity are out there all around us.

You know, if you really wanted to repay the shop owner's kindness you could have bought that Pinarello the money was found under.