I have a similar story, one that also took place in London. I had my bag stolen from under a chair outside a pub near UCL. It contained various important things

I have a similar story, one that also took place in London. I had my bag stolen from under a chair outside a pub near UCL. It contained various important things including my passport, a journal with about six month’s of writing in it, critical notes for a project I was working on, etc. I was devastated. A week later I had mostly made my peace with losing all my stuff and was about to apply, for a new passport, when I received a very posh letter in the post with an imposing coat of arms atop it; it was from the Duke of Bedford’s estate, which owns most of the land all around Bloomsbury. They told me they had found my bag in the locked garden in the middle of Bedford Square. The thieves must have thrown it over the railings, and fortunately there was a letter addressed to me inside it that gave away my address. I went to their very grand estate office to collect it and, amazingly, everything was still there, including the passport which the thieves apparently did not want.