Remember the cool new Lodis wallet I bought? I lost it on October 21.

While I can tell you the exact moment I lost it – getting out of a taxi in front of my apartment building as I returned from CA via a red eye – but I can’t tell you how I managed to drop it and not notice during that seven or eight foot long walk to the front door.

About an hour after I returned home, I realized that my wallet wasn’t in my purse. I panicked.

I raced downstairs to retrace my steps, searching the sidewalk in front of my building, the gutter and even some nearby shrubbery. Nothing.

I looked around my building’s small lobby, and then sent a note to the building manager just in case a neighbor found my wallet. Feeling defeated, I returned to my apartment and logged on to Mint.com, looking for account activity that wasn’t mine. Fortunately, I didn’t find any.

Instead of catching a few hours of much-needed post-red eye recovery sleep, I got on the phone to cancel my debit card, credit card, corporate card and Banana Republic card. Then I requested a new drivers’ license.

It was frustrating, but for reasons I can’t identify, I wasn’t all that upset. Somehow I knew everything would be okay. I knew I was lucky for losing my wallet at the end of the trip instead of the beginning, something that would have fouled up my ability to board flights. I was also grateful that I had less than $50 in my wallet when I lost it–when I initially departed, I had at least $250 in there.

Time passed and my replacements started arriving by mail, UPS and FedEx. I ordered a similar wallet online via Last Call (marked down to $37 from $98 – score!) and it too arrived.

So when another package arrived Friday, I looked at it for a moment, probably wrinkling up my nose as I thought “what is THIS?”

The package was addressed in barely legible handwriting. Printed, not script. Brooklyn was spelled ‘Broklin’ as if the sender had never heard of my borough. My date of birth, surely lifted from my drivers’ license, was written as if it were part of my mailing address.

The stamp had not been canceled. There was no return address, and no note.

Based on the subject line of this post, I’m sure you have realized that the package contained my wallet, returned to me after almost three weeks.

The cash was gone, but everything else was intact. I have no idea where it was these last three weeks or how it got back to me.

But here it is.

Helpful stranger, thank you, whoever you are.