A father's lesson
Whilst on a family holiday in Cyprus, at the tender age of 8, I decided I'd test out my new snorkelling gear at the hotel pool. It was quite a large pool, though fairly empty at the time, with maybe a few other kids playing in the shallow end.

Now I was a decent swimmer so straight to the deep end for me! I had a bit of a paddle with my head just beneath the surface, looking around the bottom of the pool and finding nothing particularly interesting, as it's just a white tiled floor, but then I noticed it!

Catching my eye was a shiny gold ring in the corner of the pool, and I immediately dived down to retrieve my prize! It was quite heavy for it's size, and had something engraved on the inside, which I couldn't understand.

I raced out of the pool to show my family my treasure and thought about what sort of things I could buy when I sold it.

My father took a look at it and commented that it looked expensive and he also struggled to read the foreign tongue imprinted on the inside.

'We'll have to hand this in' he said.

'But why!?' I yelled, 'It's mine, I found it!'

'It belongs to someone else and they've lost it, so we should hand it in' he replied.

'But I want to keep it, I'm the one that found it!' I whined.

He left a note at the hotel reception with our room number, saying that his son had found a ring in the hotel swimming pool. I remained in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

In the evening we received a phone call saying that there was a man downstairs at reception that they think the ring may belong to. They repeated the engraved words so we knew this was the right person.

I didn't want to go but my father said as the one that found it I should come along too.

Waiting for us there was a young German man holding a bottle of champagne, probably around late 20's. He'd been married for 2 weeks and was on his honeymoon, the ring was his deceased father's that he'd been given for his wedding, and the engraving was the words chosen by his mother 40 years ago.

I've never seen anyone so grateful as that stranger that day, and no rubbish I would have bought from the profit of that 'treasure' would ever top the memory of seeing the relief on his face when it was back in his hands.

Ever since that day, if I ever find anything I'll go out of my way to try and return it to its rightful owner, and thank my father for teaching me to look beyond greed and do the right thing.
( Regger, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 14:53, 5 replies)

I don't blame you for wanting to keep it
You found it. It was yours, your own, your precious.
(MJPerry was crude but clickable at, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 16:27, closed)

If you do the math, that was nazi gold.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 19:06, closed)

I am convinced
that your post is the first reverse pun ever on b3ta. I was looking for the LOTR reference all the way to the end.
(hangableautobulb is an anagram of the best album ever, on, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 19:58, closed)

Beautiful, man
nice story.
(FUXTIX Not my words, Carol, Fri 10 Feb 2012, 20:39, closed)

you couldn't read the inscription
because it was the language of Mordor, which i shall not utter here
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Sat 11 Feb 2012, 23:20, closed)