There were 3 hours left before Jeanne Laksana, chairwoman of the Chinese Indonesian Writer Association, would have to board her flight back to Indonesia on Monday. Instead of heading in the direction of the airport, she rushed to Shanghai Normal University to meet a woman and express her thanks for finding the bag that she'd lost the day before.

Laksana came to China to attend a seminar on Chinese mini-stories, which was held in Shanghai over the weekend. She went to the Henderson Metropolitan shopping center to buy some special items on Sunday, and left her purse, a Louis Vuitton bag, in one of the center's rest rooms.

"I thought I would never get it back," she said.

Gui You, a student from Shanghai Normal University found the purse with a passport, a phone and some cash inside. She immediately turned it in to the center's service desk.

The shopping center's staff looked at Laksana's recent calls and contacted one of her friends, Lu Xinhua, also a writer. Lu and Laksana went together to retrieve her bag.

"There are a lot of negative reports about China in Indonesia. People think Chinese are mean and greedy," Laksana said.

"But the truth is just the opposite. People in Shanghai are kind. I'm grateful to the woman who found my bag."

On Monday, Laksana and Lu met Gui, each of them offering copies of their own books as a special token of appreciation.

Coincidently, Monday was also Gui's birthday.

"This birthday was really meaningful," she said after receiving gifts for her good deed.

Wenhui Daily