It was 4:30 a.m. The city was still asleep, and only the orange streetlights cast Arthur’s shadow long across the pavement.
Arthur was a street sweeper in this neighborhood. His broom swept across the asphalt, emitting a monotonous “rustling” sound, as if keeping time for this city that hadn’t yet awakened. He was used to this solitude—he even enjoyed it a little. At this hour, there were no collection calls, no landlord knocking on the door—just him and the street.
As he rounded the corner of Fourth Avenue, his broom struck something hard.
It was an old, dark brown canvas bag, bulging and half-hidden among the holly bushes by the roadside. Arthur glanced left and right; the street was deserted. He bent down and picked up the bag.
It was heavy.
Arthur’s heart skipped a beat. He reached inside, his fingertips brushing against stacks of rough paper. By the dim light of the streetlamp, he could see clearly—it was cash. Green, ink-scented dollars.
He quickly glanced around, his heart pounding like a broken drum inside his chest. He clamped the bag tightly under his arm, hurried to a nearby public restroom stall, and locked the door.
As he unzipped the bag, Arthur’s hands began to tremble. Six stacks. Six whole stacks. If each stack was 10,000, that would be 60,000.
60,000.
Arthur leaned against the cold tile wall and slid down to sit on the toilet seat. This money was enough to pay off all his credit card debt, enough to send his daughter back home the laptop she’d been asking for so long, and there would even be money left over so he wouldn’t have to sleep in a down jacket this winter to save on heating bills.
“This is a gift from God,” he muttered to himself. “After twenty years of sweeping the streets, I deserve this.”
He imagined going to the bank tomorrow and seeing the teller’s surprised expression; he imagined the thrill of slamming a stack of cash down on his landlord’s desk; he imagined his daughter’s smiling face when she received her gift.
Suddenly, a cold draft blew in through the restroom’s exhaust vent. Arthur shivered and looked down at the bag in his arms. Something seemed to be stuffed into the inner pocket of the canvas bag.
He hesitated for a moment, then reached in and pulled it out.
It was a crumpled receipt and a business card.
The business card read “Express Loan Company,” and the receipt bore a line of scrawled handwriting: “Last chance. Must pay in full by Friday, or face the consequences.”
The date was yesterday.
Arthur froze. This money wasn’t just something someone had accidentally lost—it was money meant to save a life. Or perhaps, money to buy a life.
The bubble of “God’s blessing” in his mind burst with a “pop.” In its place came a more complex fear. What if the owner came looking for it? What if the money was stolen? What if the person who wrote the receipt was frantically searching the world over for this bag?
He sat in the stall for a full twenty minutes. Outside, the sky gradually shifted from pitch black to grayish-blue. The early-morning buses began to rumble, and the city awoke.
Arthur stood up. He looked at the middle-aged man in the mirror—wearing an orange vest, his face covered in stubble. He thought of the trash he swept up every day at dawn—those things people had discarded, no longer needed.
He took a deep breath, pulled open the door, and stepped outside.
Instead of going home, he turned and walked toward the police station three blocks away.
As he signed “Arthur” on the incident report, the officer on duty patted him on the shoulder: “Buddy, you did the right thing. That money might have saved someone, or it might have ruined someone, but at least you don’t have to sleep with it on your conscience.”
By the time Arthur walked out of the police station, the sun had already risen. The glare made him squint.
His hands were empty; all he had in his pocket was the key to the broom. He was still in debt, still had to face his landlord’s cold stare, and still had to sweep the streets in the biting wind.
But the moment he reached the street corner and picked up the broom, he suddenly felt his steps grow a little lighter.
He looked at an empty coffee cup discarded by the roadside and skillfully swept it into his dustpan.
“Strange,” Arthur thought to himself, “I clearly didn’t get anything, so why does it feel like I just made a fortune?”
He swung his broom and continued on his way. The morning light cast his shadow behind him—clean and straight.
