When it comes to helping out strangers, do you find yourself to be more active or passive? The reason I bring this is up is because yesterday when I was taking a walk in my neighbourhood, I stumbled upon a credit card laying face up on the sidewalk. Clearly it had fallen out of someone’s pocket, and to be honest my first instinct was to just keep on walking. It’s not my problem right? And I’m sure if I’d dropped my credit card accidentally, most people would just keep on walking too. But this time I chose to ignore my initial instinct. I started thinking about this person panicking when they realized they didn’t have their credit card on them. Not only does it suck not knowing where your credit card is, but the fear that someone else out there might be using it, yeah, no one should have to deal with that on a Friday night.

Since most people aren’t crazy like me and check their wallets on the daily, there was also a good chance that this person wouldn’t even notice that their credit card was lost for a few days or even weeks. So, what did I end up doing? I grabbed it, ripped it up, and threw out the pieces in a city dumpster. It seemed like the most logical thing to do to prevent some jerk from stealing it and screwing with this person’s credit. Was this the right thing to do? Well, I felt a lot better doing that than just ignoring the situation and going on my merry way.

One of the things that sucks about our modern world or even just living in a big city, is this whole mentality that it’s everyone for themselves or survival of the fittest. We don’t look out for our neighbours like people do in smaller communities, and I think that’s something that needs to change. No matter how prepared or smart we are, we all depend on the kindness of strangers from time to time. And since what goes around comes around, hopefully the next time I lose a debit or credit card, someone out there will help me out too.

What would you do if you stumbled upon a lost credit card on the street?