Yo-Yo Ma, the world's most famous living cellist, could not have planned a more dramatic and nail-biting performance in New York City yesterday.

And an array of New Yorkers, including a phalanx of police officers and city officials and a cabdriver in Queens, could not have composed a more gracious reception: the safe return of his $2.5 million cello.

It was 1 P.M. when Mr. Ma, still exhausted from playing at Carnegie Hall on Friday night, got into a yellow cab at 86th Street and Central Park West, putting his 18th-century cello in the trunk.

But 18 minutes later, when he got out at the Peninsula Hotel on 55th Street, he forgot the cello.

''I made a stupid mistake,'' he said later at a news briefing on the steps of the Peninsula Hotel, ''and I just left without it.''