WOW!!!

I was completely impressed and pleased with this story. It is refreshing to know that honest people still exist and not everyone is out to profit off of others' losses. This would, of course, NEVER happen in the USA, as most people would consider this a strike of luck, instead of considering the fact that the bag actually belongs to someone else, and that they might want it back. The cab driver was just doing what he felt was his job...cleaning out his car and turning in items that didn't belong to him (it is also worth noting that cab drivers make only about 600 QR salary per month - about $165 USD - plus their fares). He didn't even look inside the bag to see what was in it!!!! Granted, the fool that left the bag in the car should be a little more careful with his belongings (especially if they contained a large sum of money). Being an Arab, though, the thought of someone stealing it probably never crossed his mind, as he lives in Qatar, which has proved time and time again to be country full of people who would react the same way. I only hope that I would react with the same integrity, and I honestly think that I would....since knowing that I had stolen something from someone else would definitely keep me up at night and prevent me from wanting to get near a mirror...

Taxi driver praised for returning bag containing QR111,000

Published: Thursday, 12 June, 2008, 02:06 AM Doha Time

By Ramesh Mathew

Al-Mansouri giving a gift to Shetty

AN INDIAN taxi driver handed in a bag mistakenly left in his car by a passenger to find it contained QR111,000 in cash.
Balakrishna Shetty made the discovery a few days ago after giving a lift to an Arab national.
The modest driver, who works for the government-owned firm Mowasalat, said: “He is lucky that I found his bag before any other passengers boarded the car. Otherwise, things could have been different.”
Yesterday, Shetty’s bosses publicly commended the driver for his “honesty and dedication to work”. They presented him with a certificate and gifts.
According to company sources, Shetty, who comes from Mangalore in southern India and who has been working as a taxi driver for about two years, handed over the bag to the company’s main call centre in Mesaimeer, without even opening it.
It was only when one of the officials checked the bag in a bid to identify its owner that it was found to contain a number of valuables and a huge amount of money.
Shetty’s honesty was honoured at a special meeting, attended by Mowasalat executive director Ahmed Busherbek al-Mansouri as well as the senior business development manager Ahmed al-Ansari, acting marketing manager Tim Garcia, and senior shift controller in the taxi department Asif Nazeer.
According to Mowasalat, it is not the first time that their employees have acted with such integrity.
In a statement, the company said: “This is only a part of the bigger things that we do regularly from maintaining our cars inside-out and bringing our passengers to their destinations safely and comfortably.”
In other cases of refreshing honesty, a taxi driver, called Shaly Dharmarajan, returned foreign currency worth QR16,000 to a visiting Switzerland-based Arab who had left it behind in a wallet after taking a cab ride to Doha’s City Centre in 2004.
Moved by the Gulf Times report on Dharmarajan’s honesty, a Western expatriate living in Doha gave him a cash reward of QR3,000 and a two-way ticket to his native India.
It was the second time Dharmarajan had been in the news; previously he had returned a Western expatriate’s wallet containing approximately QR2,500. It had taken him two days to find the owner.