If you were minding your own business, going about your life as usual, and you stumbled upon an inordinate amount of cash that someone had clearly lost, what would you do? Would you pocket the money and never look back? Would you spend it all right away? Would you spend some today and save some for later? Would you invest it? Or…would you do the right thing and try to find the rightful owner?
Unfortunately, a lot of people would push aside their conscience and keep this new-found pot-of-gold for themselves. They would easily “forget” how it would feel to be the person on the other end of the equation – the person who had misplaced the money. And many other persons would assure themselves that they would give the money back right away until they were actually in the situation and faced with the decision. All virtue could fly out the window when holding an obscene amount of money in your hands.
Well Mukul Asaduzzaman, a New York City cab driver, encountered this type of situation when he found a purse containing $21,000 in the backseat of his cab. Asaduzzaman’s quick decision came easily; he recalled the advice his mother had given him when he was 5 years old – “Be honest, work hard and you will raise your station” – and went out of his way to find the rightful owner and return the money. He drove approximately 50 miles to a Long Island address he had found in the purse, but when no one was home, he left his phone number and a note saying, “Don’t worry, Felicia…I’ll keep it safe.” Felicia Lettieri, a visitor from Italy, got her money back a short time later.
Mukul Asaduzzaman is clearly a man of strong virtue and character, and he has most certainly increased his “station in life” like his mother informed him. As Albert Einstein once said: “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” We should all follow Asaduzzaman’s example and remind ourselves that the satisfaction of doing the right thing is far greater than any “reward” you may gain from doing the wrong thing. I think it’s safe to say that a clear conscience is worth more than $21,000 any day.
Great story!
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