He’d only just sat down, carefully leaning his portfolios against the end of the bench. Dressed in Melbourne blacks, I could tell he was an artist of some kind.

“Do you think that’s a joke?” he said getting up and walking forward a couple of metres.

I got up off the other end of the bench, leaving my cello, and followed him to the platform’s edge. I looked down to the tracks. “Yeah, it looks real – could be some kind of hidden camera joke for television,” I said returning to the bench. “You could jump down and get it”.

“Nah, I wouldn’t get up again, but you could. Jump down – it wouldn’t take long, go on.”

“Wow, that feels naughty, jumping down on the tracks – but it is 5 minutes until the train comes.”

“Go on, you get down and get it and I’ll help you back up.”

So I did.

I jumped down onto train tracks and picked up the yellow $50 note.  It had a bit of grease on it so it must have spent a little time being blown around under a carriage, but it was the real deal.

My accomplice helped me back up – the platform was higher that it looked, much higher than the rocky cliffs of the GR10 that I’d left behind a month ago where I’d had my last hands up.

Down to my last $2 til payday, I couldn’t have been more excited. Money on the train tracks – how about that! I thanked him for it and explained it meant a lot.

His mum always gives him $50 for his birthday.  “It’s important to spend it on something nice, like a book or a CD rather than just losing it on a bill”.

We got talking on the short train trip into Flinders St station. Apparently this area had a reputation for large amounts of money just turning up. Back in 2016, a gardener found a huge lump of cash when gardening in Highett – what a Christmas present! Some people do have money growing under trees, in their garden.

So with my newly found cash, I did as all good artists do, and went and spent it. A treat for lunch and the rest on some new aquarelle pencils.

I continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers and the abundance of the universe.

“As the purse is emptied the heart is filled” Victor Hugo

#joy #somethingsarejustcrazy #randomactsofkindness #justplainrandom