Turon ? White envelopes containing $10 bills have been arriving mysteriously in the mailboxes of residents of this small, south-central Kansas town.

The identify of the gift-giver is unknown. And that has both confused and delighted residents of Turon, population 436.

“My first thought was that I had a birthday recently,” said resident Markoleta Padgett, who found hers in the mail Wednesday. “But I thought, ‘Who the tar would send me something for my birthday and not put a name on it?'”

By Thursday 38 people had called or stopped by the post office, seeking an explanation for the envelopes that arrive without a return address. The recipients’ names are typed on each envelope, but no specific street address is provided. The letters note only that the addressees live in Turon.

Postmaster Trudy Risley, who also received a letter Wednesday, said the Turon post office is investigating the mysterious mail.

“Some are real excited,” she said of the residents, “and some don’t know what to think.”

The arrival of the envelopes on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has made some who received the letters anxious. But Risley said the envelopes contain no suspicious substances, and she hasn’t contacted authorities.

Some residents figure the anonymous gift-giver was looking to brighten a gloomy Sept. 11.