70. Doing the right thing

A few years ago in KL I went out with a friend for lunch and took him to a great vegetarian place that I know. My friend kindly paid for lunch.

A couple of hours later I received a call from my friend to say that he had lost his wallet. I quickly did an internet search and managed to call the place where we had eaten lunch. One of the workers there had found my friend’s wallet and they were keeping it safe.

I went to collect the wallet on behalf of my friend because by that time he was quite far away and I was still nearby.

Once I had collected to wallet I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of my friend’s cash was still there. Not only that but when I identified the worker who had found it, he refused to take any money as a reward/thank you.

I had to force the money into his hand.

Please bear in mind that these workers probably make less than USD300 per month. Most of which they will send back to their families in India.

I was truly humbled by the gentleman who found the wallet.

Around a year or so later whilst parking at my in-laws condo I found a brand new Samsung Galaxy (I can’t remember if it was the 4 or 5 at that time) on the floor next to my car. I guessed that somebody getting out of the car next to mine had dropped it.

I tried to unlock the phone to call a friend of the owner but it was password locked.

So I took the phone to my in-laws house but kept it nearby so that I could answer it if the owner rang.

They did, about 45 minutes later. I arranged to meet them to return their phone.

Upon returning the phone to them they exclaimed how they couldn’t believe that I was returning the phone. Admitting that if they had found a phone in a similar manner, they would have kept it.

I repeat, they would have kept it. This is a middle class couple from KL. They wouldn’t do the right thing.

Yet a very poorly paid migrant worker did the right thing without even thinking about it.

It saddens me that generally people paint migrant workers with a very negative brush. The reality is that they are all human beings trying to survive and support their families. They just weren’t as lucky as the rest of us to be born in a more affluent country.

And yet they are better people than most that I come across.

I think I’m going to write more about this in the coming weeks.