Good Kids

[WHL]

I went into Zorbas Bakery this morning, to purchase a few things, as I was getting into my car to leave, a teenage girl came running out of the shop, shouting out Sir, Sir, wait, I got out of the car and she said you dropped this by the counter, she then handed me a couple of twenty pound notes that had fallen out of my back pocket when I paid, what made my day wasn't getting the money back, but seeing her smiling face, and the look of satisfaction that she was able to give me my cash back... lifted my view on human nature no end.

[Dominic]

Must be something about bakeries that bring out the best in people. Just after we settled in Cyprus, my wife had to return to the UK for treatment on her leg which had been badly broken a year ago. I had driven her to the airport and was returning to Polemi with our daughter. We stopped at the B7 Paps in Mesogi before going home.

An hour later there was a knock on the front door. Two young local Cyprus men stood there holding my wallet. They had found it outside Paps, and found the bit of paper inside it with our address in Polemi. They drove 20 minutes and asked around in order to find our house, and there they were.

It is at times like this that language can become a problem. I was amazed at what had happened, and said "I don't believe it!!" They took it literally and thought I was accusing them of lying, so I quickly rephrased my words.

But I remembered their actions, and it is one of the reasons why I will always defend the youth when those deeply patronising, rose-tinted info graphics about how much better it was in the old days do the rounds.

[cyprusmax47]

I went into Zorbas Bakery this morning, to purchase a few things, as I was getting into my car to leave, a teenage girl came running out of the shop, shouting out Sir, Sir, wait, I got out of the car and she said you dropped this by the counter, she then handed me a couple of twenty pound notes that had fallen out of my back pocket when I paid, what made my day wasn't getting the money back, but seeing her smiling face, and the look of satisfaction that she was able to give me my cash back... lifted my view on human nature no end.

Living more than 45 years in Cyprus I remember times where not only kids very ever so honest but nearly the whole local population. Until 2003 when I left the country for a few years to Italy, we never removed items, even expensive cameras etc, from our unlocked cars overnight, parked on the village track.
Neither did we lock our entrance door of the house where the key was always in the key hole all day long as the keys were in our cars...
All windows in the house and the cars open all the time in summer.... but these times are already gone. After I returned to Cyprus in 2007 a completely different story. One had to lock everything up and in the news every day the same stories: theft here, break-ins there... unfortunately that's reality now. So much the more is to appreciate when there are exceptions, specially from kids when they are so honest... Bravo!

Max