Pay It Backward

Recently, the boyfriend and I got new phones. It was about time, since we'd both had hurricane-era phones and people would actually look at mine and say "what the hell happened to it?" It was sturdy, but time to go, and Verizon was overcharging us anyway. So, new phones. They're nice, and we'd had them about a week and a half when boyfriend lost his. It wasn't really his fault - he got into a friend's tiny sports car and it popped off of his little clip (if you know boyfriend, who is 6'8", you might understand how this could happen while folding himself into one of those bitty Nissan Z things). Anyway, he retraced his steps, but no luck. So he sent himself a bunch of texts, and there was a business card in there - basically, it would have been easy to return it. But of course, people are douchy sometimes, and the phone was gone for good. This baffles me. Now, I know that times are tough and all, but if it were me, and I found someone's brand new looking phone (or wallet, or anything for that matter), I would return it, especially when it's as easy as dialing a number. Maybe I'm naive, but I like to think that most people would. So anyway, he calls T-Mobile and asks them if there's any way to track the phone. You would think so, since you generally have to call the company to switch phones or get an unlock code. But no. Since it's T-Mobile, all you have to do is switch out the little memory card. I was sort of half-listening to his conversation with the rep, and out came this:

"So, basically what you're saying is that my best course of action would be to steal an identical phone and put my card back in it?"

Clearly he wouldn't do that, because he's not one of those douchy people that takes things that clearly don't belong to them, but I get his point. Apparently, when it comes to putting your faith in the basic goodness of people, the best course of action is to pay it backward.