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NYC Cabbie Returns $21K to Passenger

Driver turns down reward from Italian tourist

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 14, 2010 2:33 AM CST

(Newser) – Taxi driver Mohammad Asadujjaman says he was just following his mother's advice to always be honest when he went out of his way to find a passenger who left a handbag containing $21,000 in the back seat of his cab. The Bangladesh-born med student ended up making two 50-mile trips to Long Island to reunite his passenger, an Italian grandmother, with her cash, passport, and jewelery, the Guardian reports.

"They were so, so, so happy," the 28-year-old cabbie said of his passenger and her family, whose vacation would have been ruined without his honesty. Asadujjaman says he was never tempted to keep the cash, and declined to accept a reward from the family, saying that he couldn't take it because he is a devout Muslim. "I'm needy but I'm not greedy," he said. "It's better to be honest."

Taxi driver Mohammad  Asadujjaman talks at his home about returning $21,000 he found in his cab.
Taxi driver Mohammad Asadujjaman talks at his home about returning $21,000 he found in his cab.   (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews)
Mohammad Asadujjaman speaks to the press at his home in New York.
Mohammad Asadujjaman speaks to the press at his home in New York.   (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 20 comments
chuang543
Jan 15, 2010 5:55 AM CST
have you ever read the koran? Islam is a very difficult religion to follow and those radical islamics give others a bad rep.
zackmasson
Jan 14, 2010 12:26 PM CST
Hope he at least accepted money for his cost driving. Cabbies don't make shit, that would just be stupid.
stuck-in-paris
Jan 14, 2010 11:36 AM CST
me too but did she reward him in any way???

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