a harrowing experience

I had my Amazon purchase stolen on Tuesday. It was a $100 Invicta pilot watch I was buying on behalf of Rocky, my boyfriend, because he doesn't like to use credit cards. I was having it delivered to my office building, thinking it would be safer because I can get it right away. Later I realized that since I used free saver shipping, it was being delivered by USPS to the mailbox downstairs rather than directly to our office like DHL/Fedex/UPS does. However I didn't think too much about it.

So come Tuesday, I didn't get a package after our receptionist picked up the mail from downstairs. I asked her if she saw any packages, and she didn't. I checked the tracking info, and it said that the package was delivered that morning at 10 a.m. Okay, now I was worried. I went downstairs with the receptionist, and we found an Amazon box with my name on it by the trashcan outside the mail room. It was opened and the contents were gone. There were parking attendants and an occasional security guard walking around the area, but no one saw anything. I had to stay after work (this was around 6 pm) for 20 minutes so the security guard lady could fill out a report for building management. I was so upset I could hardly keep from crying while she was filling out the report. Rocky was not so upset about the lost money but more disturbed by what kind of person who could've opened someone else's package and taken what was in it. I was upset about the money, but I kept remembering something Michael (or perhaps it was another book) said, that whatever is stolen from you (money or whatever) wants to return to you, since it is still your part of your energy (and everything is energy). My understanding is that this energy can return to you in any way, shape, or form. It doesn't necessarily mean that the thief will return the watch to me. Anyway, I took comfort in the fact that $100 is really not that much money, and it wouldn't even matter that much a few months down the road.

Anyway, that night I went home and emailed the whole story Amazon to see if they can replace it. The next day, they responded saying they will send a replacement watch by 2-day shipping, free of charge. The watch arrived at work today without issue. Thank you, Amazon!

Lessons learned:

I, like many other Chinese people, give money too much importance in my life. I got home on Tuesday, exhausted and stressed, mostly because "I lost money". While I was taking a shower (where many inspirations can take place), I realized, why should I let loss of money make me feel bad? I would give ten times that money and more to feel joy and ecstasy, so why not just feel it? I would not care one way or the other a couple months down the road, so why stress out so much now?

The experience also made me more sympathetic toward our receptionist, who had her wallet stolen out of her purse a month or so when she stepped out of the office, leaving her purse under her desk (they said there was a homeless person wandering around our floor that day). She had no cash and only lost her credit cards and driver's license, but still. I was disturbed by it but didn't think much about it afterwards. Now I know what she must've felt like.