The truth is, it’s a tough world out there. And while we yearn for a time when people doing good things for each other isn’t a surprise, and is simply par for the course, those aren’t the times we live in. That’s why it makes our toes and fingers tingle with goodwill when we hear that a man who found $6,900 on the ground handed in the money so it could return to the person who misplaced it.

Picture this: You’re already at a sad, sad place — the Department of Motor Vehicles — and then you lose thousands of dollars. It’s a scenario one man saved a retired farm worker from last week, reports The Fresno Bee.

The ex farm worker had arrived at the DMV to pick up a form and didn’t realize that a bank envelope with $6,900 fell out of his car on the way. He went about his business and drove off, still unaware that the cash was gone.

Along comes another man bent on a DMV errand. He saw the envelope but thought nothing of it. When it was still there later, he picked it up and drove off with his wife. That’s when he looked inside and saw the plethora of $100 bills.

“If it was $20 or something, I might have pocketed it,” he said. “It was like, this is somebody’s livelihood.”

The couple went back to the DMV and relayed the story, and eventually the money was handed off to the local police.

“I immediately felt better,” said the finder-not-a-keeper. “It wasn’t mine to begin with.”

The other man had finally realized while in line to buy groceries with his wife that the cash was gone, and he wasn’t too happy with himself. It was the proceeds he’d received from an insurance check stemming from a car wreck. He’d pulled the cash to buy a car for his son recently, but the deal fell through so he still had it with him.

“I felt really bad,” he says. “I was angry at myself.”

He went back to the DMV and was told to contact the police. Once he showed paperwork backing up that the moolah was his, the cash was restored to him and all was well. He and his family are setting up a date to take the man and his wife out for dinner as a thank you for finding and turning in the cash.

Doing something good for someone and also making new friends over food — what’s not to love?

Good Samaritan turns in $6,900 in cash found outside Visalia DMV [The Fresno Bee]

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