A couple was spending the night at Naples on Long Beach to enjoy the Yuletide lights when they encountered something unexpected.

Gabriel Ruiz and Gabriela Jauregui just planned on taking a picture but ended up finding a bag on a chair. The bag was nothing out of the ordinary but it doesn’t look like it was left there purposely either.

The couple shared with CBS station KCAL:

“We turn around and there’s a backpack on a seat.”

Any lesser man would’ve taken the bag and its contents but not Ruiz and Jauregui.

Instead of leaving the unattended property, the couple waited to see if anyone would claim it. Little did they know, they were already doing a good deed for just guarding it.

When no one claimed the bag, they decided to take it with them. They rummaged for identification cards, hoping that they can track down the person who left the bag.

But what they didn’t expect was a wallet that contained cash more than average.

They described to CBS station KCAL:

“We saw the wallet, opened that up, and then there was just a ton of money in there.”

The cash amounted to $5,000.

With that much money on their hands, anyone would’ve run away with it. Instead, the couple decided to find out who the bag belonged to.

Unfortunately, the passports they found were all in Vietnamese.

There were no addresses printed either so their search turned into a dead end.

Meanwhile, the bag owner went back to the site that same night. In desperation, he put up signs if anyone saw his belongings. After a night of searching, he had to give up.

Ruiz and Jauregui didn’t know it yet, but the bag they took contained someone else’s entire life.

The man, who refused to be named, shared with CBS station KCAL:

“I thought, how can I get back to my country. How can I pay my tuition? My rent? I already have a baby.”

The man was studying at a southern California college at that time, and he has a family to take care of. The bag contained the resources he needed to survive, along with important documents for his stay in the United States.

The next morning, the couple found a secret compartment in the bag.

To their relief, it contained papers and contact details. They called the number immediately and asked the man to describe the bag, just to make sure that they’re talking to the right person.

Satisfied with the details, they went to the address and returned the bag to its owner.

The owner, overwhelmed with the good deed, was shaking when he got the bag back. At a time when good deeds are extraordinary exceptions, he never expected that his life would be saved by two good-hearted strangers.

There were no rewards, no fanfare, but the couple got a hug and the peace of helping someone in dire need.

Gabriel Ruiz and Gabriela Jauregui were typical youngsters who could’ve used the money, but they never doubted what they did, especially when they chose the right thing.

Watch how this couple chose kindness and gave a stranger his life back by watching the video below.

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Source: YouTube – CBS Los Angeles, CBS Los Angeles, YouTube – Wind Walk Travel Videos