The one where I do a Good Deed

When I went to check my mail about 8:30 this evening, I found a violin sitting on top of the mailboxes for the apartment building I live in.

I gave it a couple minutes in case somebody remembered they'd forgotten it before taking it into my apartment. I found a label on the case with a phone number, and called that; no one was home, so I left a message on the answering machine.

Shortly after 9, I got a call back; the violin belongs to a lady that had lent it several years ago to a kid who's parents were musicians. The kid kept promising to return it, but never quite got around to it, so when she learned that I had her violin, the lady was rather pleased. Not 15 minutes later, she came by to collect it, driving a fairly new Jeep Cherokee-looking vehicle.

I didn't ask for any kind of reward, and wouldn't have accepted one -- except that she didn't even suggest it. Nothing. Zero. Bupkis.

Now, I don't know what a violin goes for (it patently wasn't anything like a Stradivarius or anything), but it certainly SEEMED like a nice enough musical instrument. Along with it having been missing for several years, you might think that she'd have at least offered something to the person that got it back to her -- but no.

Well, it's her karma...