There’s something very pleasurable about being able to help, especially when it’s a neighbour. Often on Symi, you will see a bag or similar hanging from a courtyard gate, or left on a wall. Often, these are deliveries for when the person gets home. You might see bags hanging outside the bakery; they are orders left for people who work during opening hours. Now and then, the taverna next door will leave lunch orders at the bar, again, for collection later.

Over the weekend, we left the house at 6.00 and found a bag abandoned in the road. This was what the Brits call a bum bag, and the Americans call a fanny pack (neither of which sounds in the least desirable), but someone had clearly dropped it. A quick investigation ensued. A check for an ID resulted in no joy, but it must have been dropped overnight. We hung it on our door using the logic that it was on someone’s route, and they would return once they found it missing, and to be certain, we put a post in a couple of local Facebook groups. Its owner collected it a short while later.

I’m not telling you this to be in any way show-offy, but to highlight how safe Symi is. A few times in the past, Neil has left his camera here, there and everywhere, and as that was the source of his livelihood, it was always a worry. But not for long, because someone would get in touch, and it would be returned. We used to hear the loudspeakers announcing such things as, ‘Mrs [Whoever] has lost her purse. It is [description] and contains €50.00. If found, please bring to the police station.’ A little later, we might hear a repeat, but the story that the amount of money inside increased with every announcement is an urban myth. Not long ago, a visitor lost his phone, wallet, money and probably his mind with worry, but it all turned up a week later with nothing missing.

So, if you happen upon a blue plastic bag containing bread, or a lonely suitcase outside a gate, it’s nothing to worry about, and certainly nothing to take. For the last couple of months, there’s been a new and still-boxed six-foot fridge freezer outside a house on the Kali Strata. Ah well. Someone will come back for it one day.