Unreasonableness

I find it so disappointing when people are unreasonable. I try my best to be kind and helpful to everyone, yet people often behave in an unreasonable manner. So sad.

Let me explain.

Years ago I worked in the Lost Property Office of a large organisation. You know the type. Most big organisations like railway stations, bus stations, hotels, theatres and the like have these offices. If anyone loses something and it is handed in, it is taken to the Lost Property Office to await someone to reclaim it.

My job was to record every item handed in, the description of the item, the identity of who handed it in, and date and time it was handed in. Also, if reclaimed, who reclaimed the item and their address.

This being Britain, the most common item handed in as being lost was umbrellas. We had hundreds of them. If you opened up all the umbrellas we had they would cover the whole of the UK.

Items were kept for a set period of time and then, if not reclaimed, they were sold and the money given to charity.

People used to come asking if their umbrella, or walking stick, or hat, or wallet had been handed in. After I asked for a description of their lost item, I would show them some items and if it is theirs I would hand it over. No fee. A satisfied customer.

Often people were disappointed that they did not find the item that was lost. I felt sorry for them. So I looked at the items that were past their retention date, and would offer them such as a substitute for their lost item.

I was trying to be helpful. And this is where their unreasonableness got me upset.

A man came once asking if we had found his lost false teeth.

I looked everywhere but no false teeth had been handed in. So I suggested he takes a packet of straws instead.

He got very angry with me and threatened to report me to my manager. I was only trying to be helpful, as I said.

Someone else had lost his hat.

I showed him several hats that were handed in but none were his. So in sheer desperation I offered him a trombone.

He turned it down on account that it was too big to fit his head. Unreasonable, don't you think?

People were losing all sorts of things. Someone had lost a bra,

someone else lost some underwear,

somebody else had lost a bucket of worms.

I mean ... how can people lose such things? And also have the courage to come looking for them. The worst item that someone had come to ask for, having lost it on our premises, was a live tortoise.

I looked everywhere and checked all our record books but I could not find a tortoise as being handed in. Neither dead nor alive. No tortoise whatsoever. So I offered him a grand-mother instead.

She had been handed in three months previously and no one had claimed her. Management was too reluctant to sell her as unwanted property and encouraged me to get rid of her somehow. She looked a bit like the tortoise in the man's photo. She was alive. She walked very slowly. Always chewing on a bit of lettuce which we gave her to sustain her. So I thought she would make a good substitute for the tortoise.

I held my breath. To my surprise the man accepted her as a substitute for the lost tortoise and a few months later they were married.

Now why can't all people be as reasonable as him?