A black wallet lay on a dusty street, amid the footsteps of a bustling crowd. Perhaps it had spent too many days sleeping outdoors and was caked with grime. Perhaps passersby were too busy with their own affairs to notice it and kept accidentally stepping on it. It was like a lost child, alone on the street, yearning for its mother and waiting for her to come.
Just then, a child's voice reached my ears. "Mom, look! A wallet!" A little boy in a school uniform tugged at his mother's sleeve.
His mother looked in the direction he pointed and saw the dusty wallet. The boy was about to bend down and pick it up, but she stopped him. "Oh, what are you doing? That belongs to someone else. We can't take it! Come on, be good and go home with me!" "No, Mom! Our teacher said that if we find something that belongs to someone else, we should give it to the police. So I want to hand it in to the police!" The boy pleaded with his mother, but she ignored him and hurriedly said, "Come on, let's go. Mom's busy, and I still have to go home and cook. You need to get home and do your homework, too. Be good!" She urged him along, took his little hand, and quickly left. The boy was dragged away reluctantly, looking back every few steps. Before long, he could no longer see the wallet; it had already been swallowed up by the crowd's footsteps.
Then a fashionably dressed woman came along, talking on her phone. She chatted excitedly, until one of her dainty high heels suddenly caught on something. She looked down and saw the black wallet. "I'm so lucky today! Guess what? I found a wallet!" She rose onto her toes and lowered her voice as she spoke into the phone. "Hehe, I wonder how much money's inside! Do you think I'm going to get rich? I can buy lottery tickets again today. I'm having the luckiest day!" She bent down slightly and inspected the wallet. Then, whatever she heard on the phone made her recoil as though she'd touched a thorn. She let go of the wallet. With a slap, it hit the ground, and the sound drew the attention of the passersby. Seeing that things had taken a bad turn, the woman ignored their puzzled looks and whatever the person on the phone was saying, then fled the scene like a rabbit.
The sun was setting, but the dusty wallet still lay on the ground, facing the sunset as though telling it about all the suffering it had endured these past few days. Just then, a scavenger wearing a tattered hat came along. His face was filthy and unrecognizable, making it impossible to tell what he really looked like or even how old he was. His gaze swept back and forth across the street, finally settling on the black wallet. Without hesitation, he picked it up and opened it. There wasn't a single cent inside, only a set of keys. He sighed and thought, Looks like I won't find anything worthwhile today. He hung the wallet and keys on a railing. The wallet was like a flag, and the keys like its pole; both had been gilded by the sunset. The sun watched the scavenger leave, its gentle light gilding his retreating figure, too. In that instant, his silhouette left me with countless lessons: "Even if you find countless gold and jewels, if they aren't yours, you mustn't keep them for yourself. They belong to someone else. That's what it truly means to leave lost property untouched."
I was deeply moved by this act of leaving lost property untouched!