Day 42 - Lost and Found

Lost and Found

Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Bryce had developed the habit of donating items to lost and found boxes. He did not donate to local charities or second-hand stores. He wasn’t opposed to helping those in need, but he also was working on an entirely different project, experimenting with human honesty.

Years ago Bryce had worked at a fancy hotel in Beverly Hills, and basically anything left in the lost-and-found was gone within six months. Some of it had to do with a lack of storage space. Some of it had to do with clientele and management realizing that if a traveler didn’t report something right after their vacation ended, then they pretty much weren’t ever going to come looking for it. A lot of it had to do with personal integrity and motivation to make any amount of effort. Some people just didn’t care and some businesses couldn’t justify the employee time or cost entailed.

Bryce was never happy with any of those reasons.

Many expensive items came and went. Watches, coats, jewelry, iPods, iPads, game systems. Some workers waited until the end of their shift to take what they wanted. If an item was especially nice, they might disappear moments after making it into the box. And that was if whoever found it was honest enough to report it in the first place. Someone in the executive office decided it was a liability to even admit that something had been added to the box, so the records went from poor and incomplete to not at all. After that the rampant employee theft became so instantaneous and pervasive that essentially there was no lost and found box at all. Pity the customer that called in then looking for something they had left behind or misplaced. Lies were prevalent with employees pretending to search the empty box, asking questions and pretending to take notes or open files. Neglected customers were assured something would be done, and if they dared call again, they would only be met with more plausible deniability and misrepresentations.

The process left Bryce sick and disgusted by his fellow workers. He had quit that job the day his supervisor refused to do anything to stop the theft.

Since then Bryce had been taken by the idea of leaving items and then checking in weeks later to see if they were reported or logged in or somehow still there. He assumed that the better the lost item, the less likely that it would still be there. His assumptions were basically instantly shown true. He could make a lot of noise and try to get some form of restitution. Most businesses were quick to claim a lack of liability. It was a lost item after all. There was no proof where he lost it or if anyone ever turned it in. No one wanted to accept blame or to admit their employees were thieves.

Bryce considered adding spy camera or GPS trackers. It seemed like an expensive measure to prove what he already knew – that most people would steal if they could get away with it. A little jaded, but Bryce felt facts were facts and his pessimism was being proved out.

Rather than succumb to misanthropy, Bryce tried to find his own personal positive spin. Perhaps people needed what he left behind. Perhaps he was helping someone in need. If he left enough things in enough places, then perhaps he was gaining a connection to the world at large, sort of like is own large scale six degrees of separation experiment.

Maybe now, he was part of something larger, something interconnected. Maybe he was one with his fellow humans and was making life better, one former possession at a time.

Bryce did add a personal note whenever possible. Sometimes it was “you’re welcome.” Or “pass it on” or “share the wealth.” He was hopeful the circle would complete, and at some future point, he would receive a note of thanks or affirmation when he made his next purchase.