[Haskell-cafe] Maybe won't let me count

[Galaxy Being]

I've got this

import Data.Maybe

data MyList a = Empty | Cons a (MyList a) deriving (Eq,Ord,Show)
data BaconOrIndex = Bacon | Indx Int deriving (Eq,Ord,Show)

whereIsBM Empty = Nothing
whereIsBM (Cons idx lx) = if (idx == Bacon) then Just 1 else (whereIsBM lx)

which I would like to tell me where the Bacon is (index), not just if
there's Bacon, which is what it does now. That is, I need this to happen

> whereIsBM (Cons (Indx 5) (Cons Bacon (Cons (Indx 2) (Cons (Indx 8)
Empty))))
Just 2

So I need to traverse a BaconOrIndex list and count how deep I went to find
the Bacon variable. I get the above code to evaluate error-free, but
obviously I'm only returning a Just 1 when it sees Bacon. What I need is to
have the last part be

 . . . else (1 + whereIsBM lx)

 work; but it keeps giving the error

Non type-variable argument in the constraint: Num (Maybe a)
      (Use FlexibleContexts to permit this)
    • When checking the inferred type
        whereIsBM :: forall a.
                     (Num a, Num (Maybe a)) =>
                     MyList BaconOrIndex -> Maybe a

I haven't a clue what this means. Eventually, I'll wrap this in something
that handles the Nothing and  does fromJust on the alternative. This whole
effort is because if I didn't use the Maybe strategy, and said

whereIsBM Empty = 0
...

it would never give back 0 if it didn't find Bacon, rather, it would simply
return the whole countdown to Empty. What can I do to make Maybe work here?

LB
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