Tourist rewards honest cabbie over lost bag
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A Bangkok taxi driver Tuesday returned a backpack with 4.74 million yen in cash (about Bt1.2 million) left behind in his cab by a Japanese tourist on Monday.
The 52-year-old cabbie, Prathuan Muenrung, presented the backpack with documents, medicines and Japanese currency to Japanese tourist Watanabe Tetsuro, 56, at the Police Radio FM 91 station in Chatuchak district.
Prathuan said the tourist boarded his taxi at Suvarnabhumi International Airport and asked to go to Soi Thanniya, off Silom Road, at about 1am Monday. He said the tourist paid the fare and left the backpack behind, so he waited for 15 minutes.
When bystanders told him the tourist had gone away, Prathuan took another customer to the National Stadium - and then returned, hoping the Japanese man would come to retrieve the backpack .
Unable to locate the tourist, he contacted Police Radio FM 91 and handed over the backpack so they could find its owner. “I was astonished to find that much cash and felt sympathy for him, so I tried to return it,” he said adding he felt very proud to manage to do just that.
