A UCSB alum received a pleasant surprise Monday when his wallet was returned with the cash and credit cards still inside.

Richard Schloss, a Santa Barbara landscape artist and former professor of Japanese zen-sui landscaping at UCSB, was taking photographs on the Isla Vista bluffs Monday afternoon and noticed that his wallet was missing when he returned home. After retracing his steps with no results, Schloss cancelled all his credit cards and accepted the loss of his driver’s license and $150 in cash.

Julie Schloss, his wife, said Richard was very shaken by the incident.

“He was so upset. He had just made a withdrawal from the bank and he had everything in the wallet when he lost it,” Julie said. “We checked online and there were no additional transactions on any of the cards, but we still had to cancel them along with the Blockbuster card and everything. He went to bed very depressed.”

The Schlosses received a phone call at 11:45 p.m. from Behzad Khorsand, a junior business economics major, who had found the wallet.

“I was so surprised to find not only the credit cards, but the cash as well was still there,” Julie said. “Something like this is just very uncommon, especially when there’s cash involved.”

Khorsand said he does not think he did anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s just that I know how much it would suck if it had been my wallet, but it’s really not that big of a deal,” Khorsand said.

Julie said she was amazed at how positive the whole incident ended.

“It gives you life and inspiration,” she said. “It made me feel like the world is a better place.”