Recently, my brother had to go to Jayanagar from Hanumanthnagar in Bangalore and he boarded a BMTC bus. He was carrying with him a leather valise containing Rs 500 in cash, a credit card, a voter ID, PAN card and other valuables.

Occupying the window seat, he absent-mindedly placed the valise in a recess by the seat and being a genial soul, got into a conversation with a fellow passenger completely forgetting the existence of the valise.

He alighted from the bus in Jayanagar and blithely walked away completely unmindful of the fact that he had left behind his precious valise.

He discovered his loss after more than an hour and philosophically consoled himself with the thought that if his valise truly belonged to him by virtue of his virtues, it would be restored to him by some mysterious unseen hand.

His business over, he again caught another BMTC bus to return home and in the first of the series of coincidences, he realised that it was the same  bus by which he travelled earlier and that its conductor was also the same— yet another coincidence!

He told the conductor about his loss and the latter clicked his tongue sympathetically and how honesty was at a discount in a vast city like Bangalore and held out little hope that my brother could re-claim his valise.

As the bus was crowded, my brother had to stand for a while and when a passenger sitting by the window got up to alight, he occupied the seat and realised to his utter astonishment that it was the same seat that he had occupied during his onward journey to Jayanagar and here comes the dramatic turning point in the whole story— the valise was still there in the recess in plain view.

Not quite believing his good fortune, my brother quickly retrieved it to confirm that no one had tampered with it and that its contents were intact. They were indeed so. He told the conductor about his unbelievable luck and latter said that the bus had completed as many as 9 up and down since the morning (when my brother had lost his valise) and that dozens of people had occupied that  window-seat and yet no one had noticed the valise, though it was lying in plain view and no one had touched it.

Was this because the valise didn’t belong to them and it was “rightfully” my brother’s? Perhaps, you can draw your own conclusions.