WHILE we were in Bitterne Precinct, my son asked if he could take his money that he had earned by working all day at school on a project to buy some food for his reptiles.

I gave him his wallet and let him walk down the precinct on his own.

He came back with the food and told me that he had lost his wallet which contained a £10 note and loose change.

We searched high and low and asked in all the shops if it had been handed in. It's obvious that the wallet is a child's wallet as it is a yugioh one. No one had had it handed in.

My son is a hard working child in scouts and gives so much to the community.

I hope that whoever found the wallet obviously needed the money more than my son, and I hope you can live with the guilty conscience of stealing from an 11-year-old.

He wanted the rest of the money to buy me a birthday present, as I'm a single mum and he was excited about buying one on his own this year.

I hope whoever found it spent it wisely.

From a mother who has bought her child up to respect others and be honest in every way.

MARIA WALDEN, Merryoak, Southampton.