The rule when I worked at a comic store was that all customers should leave their bags in a front area of the store where we had a rack for such things. This was to hopefully cut down on kids stuffing expensive gaming books into their bags and running off with them.
This policy would sometimes result in bags being forgotten or otherwise left behind. Sometimes it was just an accident after a long gaming session when someone forgot they had brought a bag with them at all.
Usually the forgetful person would come back within a few hours or minutes or even sometimes the next day. But one time a backpack was just dumped there and sat on that rack for I think two months or so before I took notice of it. It was a ratty old backpack full of holes, so I didn’t expect any one was coming back for the thing. I finally decided to open it up to see if there were any identifying features so I could give the thing back to it’s owner or throw it out as the case may be.
When I opened it the only contents were this book, the Journey of Self Discovery. No other papers or pencils or books or notepads or anything. Checking out the book, it appears to be something about Hare Krishna. I’ve only flipped through the thing but my guess is that whoever left it there was attempting some passive proselytizing. Anyway, the book is well bound and will probably survive the ages so I decided to keep it just for the heck of it, and for this story I could tell about it.

Erika 12:13 pm on April 3, 2009 Permalink |
Hello,
I’m pretty sure that book was mine once upon a time, not that I particularly miss it. Maybe I even outright gave it to you. I think I just bought it randomly one day because I thought as a teenager I should know something about Buddhism.
But that’s definitely my handwriting on the tape label.
cobweb 12:19 pm on April 3, 2009 Permalink |
Ah yeah that was my thought as well when I saw that label. Well if you would like it back I would be happy to ship it somewhere for you.
Erika 12:28 pm on April 3, 2009 Permalink |
No, you’re welcome to it! If nothing else, I’m moving across the country (Japan) in two months and trying to keep my book accumulation minimal.
(Not that I was ever any good at that…)
But you know, also, I live in a Buddhist country. So ample opportunities to learn!