(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. As a cultivator, I understood the principle of “no loss, no gain,” but it took some time before I was able to take money and fortune lightly and for my heart to reach a realm of tranquility.
I would like to share three things that happened to me recently while I was working as a cleaner.
“Auntie, please go look for it.”
I started working as a cleaner in a movie theater in January 2017. The cleaning company was co-founded by several partners, and the managers were all ladies in their 30s. Zhang, the forewoman at the theater where I worked, had helped me get the job.
I often found loose change that patrons had lost. I've never picked up coins or bills on the street because, as practitioners, we are returning to tradition. Ancient people had a saying: “No one pockets anything found on the road.” It's because, if everyone followed that advice, the owner would able to find his lost belongings just by re-tracing his route. But now, things are different. I couldn't throw the money away, so I just picked it up and put it on the theater snack counter.
Later I thought that was not right because the owners still didn't get their money back. Then I handled it differently: For small amounts, like 5 or 10 yuan, when I couldn't identify the owner, I just picked it up and asked my husband to donate it online. For big amounts, if I was able to find the owner's information, I forwarded it to the manager, who would return it to the owner.
One day last November, when the first movie started at about 10 a.m., a patron in his 30s came in and said he'd lost his wallet with his ID, important cards, bank cards, and 3,000 yuan cash inside. He had left the theatre about 1 a.m. the night before. When he came back, we had already finished cleaning. He talked to a manager, and no one had reported finding it, so he was very worried.
The manager came straight to me and said, “Auntie, please go look for it.”
She didn't ask the cleaner forewoman to look for it because she knew I was a Falun Gong practitioner and would be the most reliable.
It was time for the movie to start, so all lights in the theater were off. I talked forewoman Zhang into going in with me. I used the light on my cell phone and found the wallet owner's seat. I looked carefully. There was a dark brown wallet stuck under the seat rail and not easy to see. I picked it up and turned it in to the manager.
The theatre has a rule that lost property can't be collected unless it's been verified and signed for in case of fraud. After verifying that it was his, we gave the owner his wallet. He was very appreciative. He said, “It's not the money—it's all the important documents inside. If I'd lost it, there's no way I could replace them.”
“Wait. Let me look again.”
Another time, two men in their 30s came to look for their missing wallet. They didn't trust our managers or employees and insisted on looking for it themselves.
The manager had no choice but to take them inside. But they didn't find anything near where they had sat. They were very worried.
The manager came to me and asked if I had seen the wallet, and I told her I hadn't. Several co-workers said, “If Auntie Lotus said she didn't see it, then you can be pretty sure it isn't there.”
They all believed in my honesty. The manager said, “That's true. Auntie Lotus is very reliable.”
The manager asked me to go with her to take a closer look and try to find it.
The manager didn't find it after looking back and forth. She said, “Forget it. Let's give up.”
I said, “Wait. Let me look again.”
I insisted on looking for it again while the manager waited for me in the hall. The owners were also standing out there, waiting for some good news.
Suddenly I had an inspiration: “Maybe the owners were too worried to remember their exact seats. Let me just look around.”
I searched back and forth near their seats, and on the third seat from where the owner claimed they'd sat, I saw a wallet stuck between two chairs. I was surprised and excited, “I found it! I found it!”
The manager was also surprised.
I handed the wallet to the manager. There were several thousand yuan in cash, important cards, and bank cards inside. After verifying the owner's identity, we returned the wallet to him. It took less than 20 minutes to help the owners retrieve what they had lost.
The owners were very happy! The manager told them, “It's this auntie who looked for it so carefully. You should thank her.”
They were very grateful and took out several hundred yuan to give to me. I refused to take it, so they spent over 100 yuan on cake and fruit for us to express their thanks.
“It belongs to someone else, so we should return it to the owner.”
One day I was on a shift with cleaner Wang. She was picking up rubbish while I was sweeping the floor. She saw a lady's shoulder bag with a cell phone inside. It's so easy to find the owner if there is a cell phone.
I said, “Turn it in to the manager.”
But she refused to give it to the manager and said she would if anyone came back to look for it. Otherwise, she would keep it for herself.
She was very stubborn, so I didn't know what to say. I thought what she did was so wrong and that the owner would be very worried.
When I went to check on the owner's information on the cell phone, I saw it was powered off. I turned it on and was going to find the owner using the phone number inside, but it was locked with a password. Wang was unhappy when she saw me turn on the cell phone. She said, “Don't power it on. Shut it down.”
I knew it belonged to someone else, so it should be returned to the owner. I said, “No. I will not turn it off. I will wait for the owner to call in.”
I put the cell phone back in the bag and went on working. I had no idea that Wang turned it off again.
At approximately 10 o'clock the following morning, the owner, a lady in her 20s, came back to look for her bag. I had already finished my work and left the theater. When I came back at 11:30 a.m., the owner had been there for over an hour. She was very angry that she hadn't been able to find her bag. She said her cell phone was not in service because someone had powered it off on purpose.
The manager and the owner looked at surveillence footage upstairs, but they didn't see anything.
As soon as I got back, a staff member asked me, “Auntie Lotus, did you find a shoulder bag?”
I replied, “Yes, we did.”
The staff member called the manager and told her. The manager came downstairs looking very stern. As soon as she saw me, she asked, “Why didn't you turn it in when you found it?”
I told her the whole story and calmed her down. I went to the lounge to get it, but I couldn't find it. I had no idea where Wang had put it.
The manager asked forewoman Zhang to handle it. Zhang and Wang were in-laws. Zhang called Wang, who told her where the bag was. Zhang handed it to the manager, who verified that it belonged to the lady and returned it to her.
Of course, the lady was very grateful. She expressed her appreciation and apologized, too. She said the things inside her bag were very important. She was going to the capital soon, and an important event would be delayed if the bag had gone missing.
After the owner left, forewoman Zhang really got after me. She said I shouldn't tell the manager what had actually happened, because Wang would be fired.
I was upset that Zhang defended Wang’s wrongdoing. I thought, “I resolved the problem for you, and now you're finding fault with me!”
In fact, the relationship between the forewoman and her in-laws was very bad. They often said bad things about each other behind their backs, but they protected each other at critical moments.
After some reflection, I realized that as a practitioner, I shouldn't hurt anyone. Wang's husband had passed away four years ago, so she was very lonely. She was not short of money and just wanted to work to have something to do.
I stood in her shoes and came to understand her. She is just one of the victims of the declining morality fostered by the Chinese Communist Party. So much theft, so much swindling, so much cheating and deception. I would not have her lose her job just because of this one wrongdoing.
I went to the manager to speak up for Wang. “The bag has been returned to its owner, so let's just forget Wang's wrongdoing and act as if nothing happened. We all have predestined relationships with each other since we are working together.”
The manager was a bit embarrassed because she was not sure how to prevent such wrongdoing in the future if she didn't fire Wang this time. I said, "Please rest assured. I'll talk to Wang about it. We will all pay attention and make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”
The manager was persuaded by my sincerity and agreed not to fire her.
Falun Dafa has taught me the principle of “no loss, no gain” (Zhuan Falun).
Thanks to Falun Dafa, I am now a truly honest person instead of just pretending. I hope that all my friends can accept that “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” I wish everyone and their families happiness and goodness.
