Nure Alam has been a taxi driver in the UAE for five years with cab-riders often leaving their bags or phones behind by mistake.
However, according to a report by The National, one of Alam's passengers left something else in the cab: almost $25,000...in cash.
Mr. Alam reportedly found an envelope under his passenger seat containing the cash approximately one hour after he dropped off its owner, a Somali working for a government company, at the Millennium Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Time for the cabbie to book a long vacation, right?
Well, not just yet. The cabbie immediately called his company to tell them he was dropping off the envelope at Al Shabia police station.
“The police asked me why I didn’t take the money,” said the cabbie. “I told them, ‘I did not work for it. Why would I take it’?” The cabbie also told reporters that seeing all that money made him shake.
A day later, the Somali and his money were reunited after he called the taxi company to ask if they had found his wad of missing cash.
And for Mr. Alam, honesty paid off: The Somali passenger gave the cabbie a $817 reward and his bosses at his company gave him close to $275.
But for the cab-driver, the best pay-off he told reporters he received: the compliments that came from his nine-year-old daughter Dhola who told friends and family, "My father is a good man, an honest man."
