Exercise #1 - Mystery Bag

I am reading a book called "The No Experience Necessary Writer's Course". It has some nice short chapters and includes 24 exercises to help me become a writer.

The first is as follows:
Imagine that you are downtown in a major city during rush hour. Suddenly a woman walks toward you, holding a bag. She meets your eyes, smiles, hands you the bag, and says, "Here you go." Before you can say or do anything, she turns and walks off.

My husband and I were visiting Manhattan for the first time. We were staying at a small hotel very close to times square and taking long walks every day. I was impressed by so much, the deli's all over the place, the lights, the sheer volume of people on the sidewalks, the street vendors, artists, mimes, taxis. It was a little overwhelming and exciting. I thought about all of the movies and television shows I had seen that had been filmed in this very city, or in Central Park.
We had just visited a little deli and shared a pastrami sandwich and were walking on the sidewalk when I saw a woman coming towards us. On sidewalks so filled with people, I wouldn't have noticed her especially except that she was making eye contact with me and smiling. Of course, not normal for the big city. I had lived in Chicago, I knew not to make eye contact with strangers.
She transferred her purse from her shoulder to her hand and held it out towards me as she smiled. I wondered what she was thinking. It was a pink patent leather slouchy purse, quite big and bulky, not bad looking actually. She stopped and I made a confused face, and she handed me the bag, saying "Here you go." Before I could ask her what was going on, she disappeared into the crowd.
The situation, being in the middle of the day, did not seem to be dangerous and the lady did not look suspicious, but I had no idea what to do with the bag. Should I open it? Should I toss it into the garbage can as I passed by? Was it meant to be for me personally? She could have given it to anyone, so why me?
My husband thought I should immediately drop it to the ground and leave it there. Why would a stranger give me a bag? Definitely a strange situation.
I thought I should look inside. What if it had treasures inside? Diamonds and gold, or unmarked bills to be spent on whatever I wanted?
The bag was not as heavy as you might think for its size. I put the purse to my ear to make sure it was not ticking (I do watch the news.) and it was not. It was also not moving or making any noise, nothing living inside, no cat or small dog. I shook it a little, not a puzzle either.
I saw a small piece of an envelope sticking out of one of the side pockets. I pulled it out. It was addressed "To whomever is now carrying this purse". I opened it and pulled out a plain sheet of lined paper. It read: "You are the lucky receiver of this pink purse. You are being filmed for a television show from hidden cameras. The contents of this purse are yours to keep as long as you tell us what you plan on doing with them." I looked around and the lady reappeared. She walked up to us with outstretched hand and said "Hi, I am Julie from the Style Network's, What's in the Purse. Because you did not drop the purse or throw it away but seemed to wonder what was inside it, you now get to keep the contents."
"Okay" I said smiling. I had given a meaningful look at my husband when she mentioned throwing the purse away. I slowly opened the purse and saw cash surrounded with a little band with 10,000 dollars written on it, some jewelry boxes, a gift card to Nobu restaurant (I love Sushi), an invitation to spend 3 complementary nights at the Ritz Carlton at Central Park, a gift card to some clothing stores and a beautiful digital camera. Julie told me that the only stipulation was that I must use everything in the bag before returning home.
We called our friends who were watching our cat and asked them to watch her for a few more days. My husband e-mailed work to let them know that he needed a few extra days off. It was a wonderful vacation. It is also surprisingly easier than you would think to spend 10,000 dollars.