On 14 May 1941, a passenger lost a thousand pesetas on a bus between the Port and the centre of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He offered a hundred pesetas as a reward to anyone who returned it to the Colegio de las Dominicas.
A lapse on a bus in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which occurred 85 years ago, has returned to the spotlight thanks to the archives. On Tuesday 13 May 1941, between four and five in the afternoon, a traveller lost a thousand pesetas on the line that connected the Port with the city centre. It is unknown at which stop he got on or where he got off, but the announcement he published the next day in LA PROVINCIA offered a reward of a hundred pesetas, 10% of what was lost, to anyone who returned it to the Colegio de las Dominicas.
The loss, which today might seem like a mere anecdote, had considerable value back then. With a thousand pesetas, one could buy 6,666 copies of the newspaper, which cost fifteen cents. Or, if one preferred the cinema, it would cover 666 seats at the Teatro Cuyás, where the musical comedy Ave María was showing at a peseta and a half per ticket. The Real Cinema, on the other hand, was offering The Blitzkrieg, a film about the recent conquest of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, at six thirty and nine forty-five.
However, on that 14 May 1941, the main headline on the front page of LA PROVINCIA was not the loss of the note, but the arrival of Rudolf Hess in Scotland. Hitler's deputy had parachuted in four days earlier with a peace proposal that Berlin denied having commissioned. The newspaper reported the German version, which claimed that Hess aimed to convince the British that Germany was unassailable and that they could come to an understanding without Churchill.
On the same pages, a piece titled “Gloss of the Bitter” denied any internal struggle within Franco's regime and labelled those speculating about changes in direction as agitators. The newspaper warned that it only took “a good punch” to silence the critics.
The announcement of the lost note, in that context, almost seemed like a breath of fresh air. “More than one must have smiled upon finding the announcement, relieved that, for once, the forgetful one was someone else,” wrote the chronicler. The reward offer, though modest, reflected a trust in the honesty of others, a gesture that today, eight decades later, still sparks curiosity.
The story, rescued by the archives, recalls a time when a thousand pesetas was a fortune and an announcement in the newspaper was the only way to recover what was lost. The Colegio de las Dominicas, where the note was to be returned, no longer exists, but the episode remains a small window into the everyday life of the city during the post-war period.
For current readers, the anecdote serves as a reflection on how customs have changed. Today, if someone loses something on a bus, they look for it on social media or in lost and found groups. In 1941, a line in the newspaper and the hope that someone would honour the reward was enough.
It is unknown whether the note ever turned up. Nor whether the owner recovered his money. But the story, with its thousand pesetas, its bus, and its Colegio de las Dominicas, has been etched into the city's memory.
You may also like
