ON Saturday afternoon, I visited a shop on King Street, Knutsford, to purchase a card and present for my wife’s birthday. Even though I’m now retired, I do regretfully fall into the all-too-familiar category of someone squeezing in a few-toomany- last-minute jobs, but it didn’t lessen my wish to buy the present and hot-foot it back to my car so my wife and I could enjoy the afternoon out, together.

Regrettably, the consequences of my rushed visit to the shop wrecked the harmony of the moment an hour later when we parked at John Lewis and I found that I’d lost my wallet.

My plans to enjoy the afternoon out, with my wife, were now rapidly overtaken by the feeling to do all I could to protect myself. I came back home, revisited the shop that I’d unsuccessfully rung an hour earlier (by now, closed) and walked back over the route to where my car had been parked.

I called at Knutsford Police Station (also closed) and went home to report to the police, get an incident number and advise DVLA that I’d lost my driving licence.

But as I returned home a few hours later, I did allow myself to wonder if some well-intentioned citizen had dropped my wallet through my front door. Equally, I knew that that thought came under the heading of ‘wishful thinking’.

Except that it didn’t.

Come Sunday morning, that genuine public-spirited person had indeed visited our home and simply dropped the wallet back through my door. Anonymously. Contents intact.

We’ve now just celebrated the 23rd anniversary of coming to live in Knutsford and we’ve long felt that it’s now ‘our town’ and that we ‘belong’ but the very generous actions – by which I mean the simple honesty of that lady or gentleman who did the good deed, without thanks, fuss or recognition – has markedly helped to restore the faith that can so easily be lost in today’s changed world.

Whoever you are, I thank you for taking the trouble to display your act of kindness and honesty.

Ian, Knutsford