Some are suggesting that Ghazi Adra is the most honest man in Australia. Why? Because he handed in $50 000 that wasn’t his.
Mr Adra found a cooler bag stuffed with five neat bundles of $US100 notes on a Sydney train and took it to a police station. He didn’t even think about keeping the money.
In the News.com.au story Honest Aussie battler Ghazi Adra hands in $50,000 found on train we’re told that the 68 year old man shocked police by handing in the money.
He was holding more money than he earns in a year as a storeman at an electrical factory, but Mr Adra never once thought about keeping it, telling his family: “We must go to the police station and hand it in.”
Even the policeman on duty at Mt Druitt was surprised by his honesty.
“The officer said to me, ‘I can’t believe you are handing this in, you are a very good man’,” Mr Adra said.
Mr Adra deserves to be congratulated for his honesty, and I wouldn’t want to downplay what he did, but is that kind of honesty really that rare today?
I don’t know how anyone could keep that amount of money if they found it. Would you have kept the money?
Not many of us would be likely to find such a large amount of cash but some of us may find money or other items from time to time. Have you ever found anything valuable? Did you try to find the rightful owner? Would you keep $50 if you found it? What about $100 or $200? What amount would you consider needed to be handed to police?
Have you ever lost something valuable that has been returned?
While cycling I find a number of items on the side of the road. I’ve tracked down owners for several phones and a few other bits and pieces. I found a USB Drive a few days ago. I found the owner’s email address on the drive and have emailed them to arrange its return. I haven’t heard back as yet.
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years ago when i was in my last year of highschool some mates and i found a wallet that had been left in a payphone in the Ipswich CBD. It had $100 in it and we took it to the local Police Beat. The policeman was convinced we mustn’t have looked inside because we’d left the $100 in there.
The old man who owned the wallet was very thankful, he contacted me a few days later and gave me an inscribed pen as a gift.
Great story. I love it when people are grateful for small kindnesses. I’ve found a few people that have been less than grateful when I’ve returned items but it still hasn’t put me off trying to track down owners of stuff I find.
I just participated in a little online survey linked to an article about this story. According to the results (which may not be totally accurate) 25% of the people surveyed said they would keep the money. I find that pretty sad, but I’m not surprised. In fact, knowing the human heart, I’m surprised the percentage of potential thieves is not higher.
I wonder how the statistics would stack up if some of those people were actually put in that situation.
Would some of that 25% suddenly feel guilty and hand the money in? Would some of the 75% find the temptation too much and hang on to the cash?
If we don’t have a strong moral framework that directs our actions already in place we’re left to make decisions based on how we feel at the time.
I think for smaller amounts of money, it depends how easy it is to track back to the owner, ie. $50 in a wallet vs. $50 lying on the side of the road with no one around.
Money itself won’t screw you up, but loving it will.
Agreed. Some of the stuff I’ve found I know will be impossible to track back to an owner.
My favourite pair of sunnies for some time were the ones I found on the side of the road. Quality sunglasses with no way of finding their owner. They did the job for me for a few summers before they broke.
Rodney: first, thanks for visiting my blog and posting me with StumbleUpon. I think what stuns people about this story is that it is so unusual someone would do this. Our world today is desperately lacking in integrity so this sticks out. I have had several smaller opportunities to make decisions like this, mostly from stores. It is only right (as a follower of Christ and a father) that I make the right decision to give or correct what is a mistake. Thanks for posting this.
I know what you mean about decisions in stores. If I’ve ever returned excess change or pointed out something that will disadvantage me the store assistants don’t know quite what to say. They no longer expect honesty.
The news even made it to us, is that good or just sad?
My spouse tends to find money. In Cuba he found some notes, no idea how much it was worth, he gave it to an elderly.
The other day he found a euro-cent, he kept that one 🙂
He also found 10 euro and kept it, but 50 or 100 would make a difference…
I forgot my camera in the laundry in Perth and the people found us and returned it to me, I was very thankful for that!
Hello Iris
Yes, it’s always a matter of deciding what to do with anything we find. Sometimes it’s impossble to track down an owner so we benefit from what we find.
I’m glad that you got your camera back. As well as the valuer of the camera I’m sure it was full of great memories.