Today, as I was walking home from university in the rain, I looked at the umbrella in my hand and thought to myself, 'I ought to buy a new umbrella.' Stopping midway at the grocery store to buy some juice (I'm quite the imbiber of juice), I set my umbrella down with several others at an umbrella stand located just outside the store. This is common practice in Japan; most do it.
I ended up buying a carton each of pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, orange juice, and grape juice, but after I had paid, bagged them, and walked out of the store, I made an unfortunate discovery. In the five minutes I had been in there, my umbrella had been stolen. It's not unheard of, but I suppose I simply wasn't expecting it in this rural area, on this rainy day.
I carried my groceries the rest of the way home through the pouring rain.
At first, I vowed to exact blood vengeance if I ever found the culprit, but I began to think of it like this: perhaps the universe heard my thoughts as I was walking with the umbrella. Perhaps it was trying to help me, in its way; after all, it set me on the path to buying a new umbrella, didn't it?