Time To Invest In Some Name Tags

I’m on a bus with my boyfriend and two friends. We’re all from the same university and going to a university defense in another city. At some point, we’re stopping in Marseille, which in France has a kind of “bad” reputation for thieves and similar issues.

One of my boyfriend’s friends lives there, and since he lives not too far from the train station where the bus is going to stop, he comes to say hi. We all go to chat with him quickly while some people are leaving the bus and others are coming in. The bus driver has opened the baggage compartment of the bus and is helping people reach their luggage.

Boyfriend: “Hey, isn’t that our luggage this guy is taking?”

We’re a bit slow to react, so we don’t chase down the guy directly. I go to the driver and try to get our luggage only to realize that it is indeed missing.

In this bag, there is my boyfriend’s suit and, more importantly, our end-of-study project, which we have been working on for almost two years and have to show at the university.

We start to panic — while our two friends decide to just stay near the bus in case it leaves without us — and rush out into the train station, each of us taking a different side.

I didn’t even see the guy’s face, our bag is not easy to look for — just a big black bag — and there are a lot of people, trains leaving, and other ways out. I’m starting to think it will be impossible to retrieve our bag.

And then I see it; a man is sitting in the waiting area with our big bag on the ground. 

Me: “Excuse me, sir. I think you got my bag instead of yours. Can I check?”

The man looks at me without saying a word, so I open the bag and, sure enough, I find our project and my boyfriend’s clothes.

Me: “I’m sorry, but that’s my bag.”

The man was still silent, so I took the bag and got back to the bus.

We informed the bus driver and he asked the other passengers to check their luggage. We did not leave our bag unattended after that.

I can’t even imagine how horrible it would have been to discover our bag missing at the end of the journey!