Retired journalist Don Abey was devastated when three pads of notes and a USB were stolen from his car in Chisholm earlier this month.
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The theft represented the loss of four years of meticulous work on his memoirs. Mr Abey dreaded digging out an early draft to edit and rewrite his book.
So imagine his delight when he spotted a plastic bag outside his garage on Monday containing his life story.
"It's a mighty huge relief and joy," Mr Abey said.
"Imagine having four years of your work back and not having to write it again - that's a huge relief."
The 87-year-old's book will document his colourful career as a journalist in Sri Lanka and Australia - "what I couldn't report", as he explained on Tuesday.
Mr Abey will now make a few final tweaks, write a foreword and shop it around to different publishers with the aim to have it hit the shelves early in the new year.
"It could cause some sort of a stir in some circles," Mr Abey said.
"We have to read what we know, what we knew and published and be damned, so that's what I'm going to do now."
The Canberra Times reported on Mr Abey's loss on December 7. Since then, the news has travelled to relatives in Vancouver, Sri Lanka and Dubai, and caused something of a stir locally for Mr Abey.
"When the news did break I was in the Woden shopping centre and the amount of people who stopped me, I was amazed how far the news went," Mr Abey said.
And Mr Abey said he has no hard feelings to whoever took his writing in the first place.
"I'm grateful to him [for returning it]," he said.
