Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 17498

Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty is more pleased with the repentance of the servant who has wronged himself than a man who is travelling through a wilderness where there is drought and destruction; when he reaches the middle of that wilderness, his mount is lost. He runs in search of it to the right and to the left until he is exhausted (the narrator is unsure; perhaps the words are:) he despairs of it and thinks that he himself will now perish. Then he looks and finds that mount in a place where he had no expectation of finding it. Allah Almighty is more pleased with the repentance of His sinful servant than that man is at finding his mount."
Abu Ya'la recorded it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.