I bet you and I have the same dream: to change the world into a better place? Who doesn’t? Anybody?

How do I know? It’s human nature. We are always trying to makmake the world better. That’s why we inveted things like fire, iPhones and stinky tofu.

For a long time I tried to change the world into a better place.

In my job, in my family, in my community. Guess what? I failed. I lost my job, I had a terrible falling out out with some family members and I parted ways with many of my friends.

Thank God I am not stupid enough to try and change my wife.

But I did try to change my cat! Guess what? I couldn’t even do that!

I started to think that to change the world is hard. Impossible even! I had tried. I had failed. And I started to think to change the world we need money, power and influence….or we need to do something big, and I mean Mother Teresa Big.

And then I met Mr. Jagath….

Contest Master, Toastmasters

It’s 2012. Sri Lanka. Hot, polluted, crowded.

My wife Queenie and I are on a bus going to Matara on Sri Lanka’s south coast.

Our suitcase is in the compartment below. My backpack in the compartment above.

It’s early. The bus is rocking gently. I am sleeping ugly….like this,.

In Matara Queenie shakes me awake suddenly from my deep sleep.

Still half-asleep I grab our suitcase, jump off the bus and walk off.

As we walk I feel something is missing. Do I have everything? I stop to check!

Suitcase check. Wife: check. Backpack…my backpack………!

….my backpack - with my passport, wallet, cameras - MY WHOLE LIFE - is….still on the bus….

I have to find it. I abandon Queenie on a dusty street and charge back into the chaotic bus stop. Which bus is mine?

I start to ask people for help.

Nobody wants to help.

I feel hopeless, I feel helpless, I feel alone

And then I feel a gentle tap on my shoulder!

I spin around. It’s a beggar.

“What do you want? Money?” I ask him.

He replies with a big smile: “No sir. I think you need help. How can I help you?”

It turns out the beggar isn’t a beggar. He is Mr. Jagath a 50 year old motorcycle-taxi driver with a big smile and a bigger heart who wants to help me….

…and for the rest of his day he never stops helping me….

…he takes me to the police station, which is closed. The criminals were on vacation maybe.
…he puts me on his motorcycle and chases a bus he thinks is mine. It isn’t.

At every roadblock Mr. Jagath says with a big smile: “No problem Mr. Paul. I will help you find it!”

Finally he takes me to the bus administration office. I see Queenie there! I don’t know how she got there, but she’s there! Wife: Check!

In the office the workers crush all hope when they say: “Sorry sir, your bus is on its way to the capital Colombo 200 km away.”

Mr. Jagath says: “No problem Mr. Paul. We will hire a taxi to chase the bus!”

I love his optimism! But all my hope is Gone!

Queenie is sitting in the office quietly scrolling through pictures on her camera.

Mr. Jagath suddenly points excitedly at one of the pictures….. he takes her camera and shows it to the office workers….they start to laugh….

….they recognize the bus driver in the picture…and point excitedly outside.

Mr. Jagath drags me to a bus parked 10 meters away. It is our bus!

I jump on the bus. The driver asks: “how can I help you?”

My backpack is there with everything in it. Backpack check!

When Mr. Jagath found me in the chaos of that bus terminal. I felt helpless, hopeless and alone. I didn’t know where to turn or what to do next. I asked many people for help, but no one did.

Except for Mr. Jagath. His selfless kindness made my world better.

When Mr. Jagath simply asked: “How can I help you?” The situation didn’t seem so helpless or helpless. I didn’t feel so alone.

Mr. Jagath isn’t rich, powerful or influential. He was just a person who saw another person in need. He cared. He helped, and didn’t expect anything in return. And because he dared to care about, and help a complete stranger, he made the world a better..

Now I know losing a backpack isn’t the end of the world. But on that dusty road in far away Sri Lanka, it seemed that way to me. By helping me, Mr. Jagath proved that to change the world into a better place you can simply start by asking the person next to you: “How can I help you?”