The Misworn Money Belt: Or, What Not to Do on Your Summer Vacation

I immediately contacted StudentUniverse, which agreed to call Air India in London and help. Thursday afternoon, I stopped in Air India's office for an update: It had received the ticket copy from StudentUniverse and had sent the information to the Mumbai office. All I could do was show up at Heathrow and hope for the best.

Early Friday morning, I stood in line at Heathrow's Air India customer service counter with a young actor from New York named Jason. He'd been backpacking himself and had been robbed in Paris a few days earlier, losing his airline ticket, money and credit cards. He'd paid for food and his train ticket to London with change he collected by playing his guitar on a Paris street corner.

At about 10 a.m., Jason and I began begging the unrelenting Air India staff to reissue our tickets, sans blacklist transmittals. The airline's database showed we had bought tickets, our passports matched the names in the system and our thieves had not shown up at the airport wearing "I {heart} NY" T-shirts. Reason enough to reissue the tickets, right? Wrong.

As I wished Pete a safe trip home, the man behind the Air India counter called me over. I figured he was going to recommend the section of the airport floor he thought most comfortable for sleeping. Instead, he delivered extraordinary news: Heathrow had received the blacklist confirmation minutes before.

I got my boarding pass, and Pete and I ran through the airport to catch our flight. We arrived at the gate at last call. As we boarded the plane, I realized how lucky I had been. Jason was nowhere in sight.

* * *

Pete and I now see the Pickpocket Fiasco as a fitting end to our trek abroad. However, we did not speak of it much on the flight to New York, because we had much more important matters to discuss.

After all, in the midst of sorting through my calamity, we'd visited Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral; walked around Westminster and listened to a debate about a proposed dental plan in the House of Commons; surprised my childhood friend, singer-songwriter Johnathan Rice, before he played an acoustic show in Covent Garden; and managed to get tickets to a women's semifinal match at Wimbledon.

We also decided, by a 2-to-0 vote, that Munich had the best-tasting public water in Europe.

Christopher Coffman, who lives in Annandale, will attend the Michigan State University College of Law in the fall.