The Lost Bag
2017-08-03ByMoXiaomi
By Mo Xiaomi
The Lost Bag
By Mo Xiaomi
In my neighborhood, there is a street lined with small shops, where, almost on a daily basis, you can see all kinds of notices, such as new shop opening, job recruitment, clearance sales, and property transfers. Very few shops remain open for over two years. However, in Tokyo, there is a shop called Uchiyama Candy Shop that has been operating for five decades, and the shop owner Mr. Uchiyama has reached an advanced age of 90 and still runs the business.
Due to his age, Mr. Uchiyama considered closing this candy shop two years back. However, he claims that just because of a bag left behind by a customer yet to be claimed, the shop is still open.
In all likelihood, the owner of the bag was just a passerby, who has gone somewhere far away, and will never be back. Moreover, it is likely that there is nothing valuable inside the bag, and it would hardly matter even if it was lost. Yet Mr. Uchiyama holds a different view. He thinks, since the owner was a guest to his shop, he should be fully accountable for it.
Recently, a Japanese news website posted photos of Mr. Uchiyama and the shop online, hoping to find the owner of the bag; thus, we got to learn about the shop, even if it doesn’t sell candies any more.
If you have left something in some corner of the world, it could still be there, waiting for you. In a middle school located in a southern county of China, the school principal had taken care of a briefcase with a combination lock that was left behind by a job applicant over 20 years ago.
Back then, mobile phones were not yet common, and the only clue was the name of the owner. After many fruitless attempts to reach the applicant, the principal thought of handing the briefcase over to the police station, but later he changed his mind, as he felt the police wouldn’t accept such a trivial matter, so he decided to safeguard the briefcase himself, just in case the owner came back to look for it someday.
Over the past 20 years, the school changed its name and split and merged three times, and the school dormitory was also relocated three times, but the briefcase was always kept in the school’s archives. Whenever the school needed to be relocated and was faced with a heavy workload, someonewould always suggest, “This briefcase has been here for so long, yet no one ever showed up to claim it, so it must be valueless. Why don’t we just throw it away?”
The principal replied, “No. I don’t know whether it is of value or not, but when he came to attend the interview, he took out his certificates of honor from the briefcase, so I believe it should be meaningful to him.”
At the occasional gathering, where the attendees were not familiar with each other, the principal would chat with the person next to him out of courtesy.
“I have a senior schoolmate who once applied for a position of your school many years ago.” said that person.
Over the years, countless candidates had applied for jobs at the school, yet unexpectedly, the principal blurted out, “Is his name XXX?”
“Do you know him?” said that person, feeling surprised.
The principal told the whole story, and, finally, the mystery was solved.
A few days later, in the principal’s office, the owner unlocked his briefcase, and it turned out that the password of the lock wasn’t set.
In fact, seemingly hopeless waiting has its own significance. At every moment, it may remind you of the days of the past, as if experiencing the return of an old friend.
(From Tonight News paper, November 28th, 2016. Translated: Zhu Yaguang)
我家附近一条街，一溜的小店铺，几乎天天都能看到开张、招工、清仓、转让的大小告示，很少有开到两年以上的。但在日本东京都，有家内山糖果店，开了50年之久，店长内山先生业已九十高龄。
店长年事已高，两年前也想关掉糖果店，只因有个顾客将一个包遗留在店里，小店便一直开着，等待那人前来认领。
那个失主可能只是匆匆路过，可能已经去往天涯海角，再不回头。更可能，那包里根本没啥重要东西，丢了也就丢了。但店长不这么认为，既然是他店里的主顾，他便要负责到底。
日本网络媒体将小店连同店长的照片传上网，帮忙寻找包的失主。这样，我们才知道这家糖果店，虽然它已经不卖糖果了。
你在这世界上某个角落遗留的东西，有可能一直在那儿等着你。南方县城的一个中学，有位校长保管着前来求职的人遗留的密码箱，长达20年。
当年，大多数人还没有手机，留下的线索唯有失主的一个名字。校长多方查询无果，也想过将密码箱交派出所。但觉得这点小物件，派出所未必受理，还不如先代为保存，哪天失主来找，也有个交代。
20年里，学校改名、拆并三次，校舍也搬了三次。校长把密码箱存放在学校档案室，每次学校搬迁，工作量很大，总有人说：“这密码箱长时间没人来找，肯定不值钱，扔了算了。”
校长说，不能扔，值钱不值钱不知道，但他来求职时，曾从箱子里拿出过荣誉证书，应该很珍贵吧。
在一个非常偶然的场合，同桌吃饭的人也都不熟，校长跟边上的人礼节性地交谈。
对方说：“我有个师兄，很多年前，去你们学校应聘过。”
这些年有多少前来应聘的人啊，校长竟脱口而出：“是不是叫XXX？”
对方奇怪：“你认识他？”
校长说出原委，果然对上了号。
几天后，在校长室里，失主直接打开密码箱，原来根本没设密码。
看似无望的等待，有它的特殊意味。每时每刻，都可能重逢当年，似有故人来。
（摘自《今晚报》2016年11月28日）
似有故人来
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