I lost my wallet last week, on the way home from a daytrip to Manchester.

I’ve only ever lost my wallet once before, many years ago after a night out in London when I was drunk on the nightbus home. That time, along with cards and ID and so on, the wallet contained a precious New Zealand pounamu (greenstone) carving, and I felt its loss terribly.

This time, I just left my wallet on the train, and actually didn’t realise I’d lost it until two days later. That’s testament to how little I rely on my wallet these days. But as soon as I realised I’d lost it, I just cancelled my cards and felt ho-hum about it. There was nothing of any importance in it, and certainly nothing irreplaceable.

Having narrowed down the loss to my train home from Manchester, I remembered that lost property found on trains tends to get handed in to the lost property room at the terminating station of that route. In this case, London Euston. I was pleased to see how easy it is to lodge a missing item enquiry via their website, so I did so just on the off-chance it had been handed in.

Lo and behold, an hour or two later I received a friendly email saying my wallet had indeed been handed in, and I could collect it for just £3! How wonderful.

And so, on a trip to London last Friday, I picked it up. Nothing had been removed from it, and it had been handed in by a “V. Trains.” - or Virgin Trains, the operator of the service I had been on when I lost it.

So, either the ticket inspector/guard found it, or someone who was sat near me handed it to them, but either way, I feel immense gratitude to Mr or Ms V. Trains for their kindness - even if it is just standard procedure. It’s this kind of standard procedure which can easily be taken for granted, but that makes an individual’s life so much easier in frustrating circumstances.