Text message rehabilitation

A Hangzhou woman, trained as a psychological counselor, used her professional skills recently to convince a purse thief to return most of her stolen possessions.

In a blog post, Zhang Minying said her cell phone was also in the purse, but she bought a new one and called her old number. The musical ring tone had been changed and there was no answer, so she sent a text message saying, “I’m Mrs Zhang, the owner of the mobile. I see you’ve changed my music. What can I say? You have better taste!”

She followed it with a second message that said, “Hi, Feeling good today? I just felt you may be lonely. If you need someone to talk to, I am here and all ears. To be frank, I’m a bit depressed today and feeling sorry that I was so careless and lost my purse.”

There was no reply, but her third time was the charm. “I believe you had a good reason for what you did, but could you return the things that are meaningless to you but mean something to me? I’d like to trade money for anything you want to return.”

The next day she had a reply, that said, “I’ll return your things if you can lend me 500 yuan ($73) because I’m broke.”

Zhang never sent any money but kept texting the thief until after a week she received a package in the mail with all her missing items, except the cell phone and some cash. “Communication can work wonders sometimes,” Zhang wrote in her blog.

www.news.hsw.cn