Broke cabbie returns $21,000 in cash

[The Big Ragu]

Great story about a broke Bangladeshi cabbie tracking down an Italian grandmother visiting the country to return $21,000 she left in his cab. Borrowed a friends car and drove 50 miles to leave a note, and then drove back to return the money.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8455897.stm

I love the story for a lot of reasons. The man showed more character in one night than many people show in a lifetime. And he gave a positive representation of Islam for people to see by saying he was just acting honestly as a devout Muslim.

 

[Michael Echan]

I wish this story would get a little more publicity. Honesty and kindness are characteristics that are not limited to one faith or another.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Michael, I am personally not much for organized religion. But so much good and bad gets done in the name of it. I think people -- whether they are religious or not -- learn the values that define them as they grow up. I'm sure there are a lot of things that go into making you who you are. But some people are infused with honesty and kindness and mostly loving qualities. Others are mostly filled with hatred and deceipt. Obviously, those qualities aren't specific to ALL practitioners of any religion or ALL people of any ethnicity or race or ALL people who choose a particular career path. It's just who you are. But when people look at others, they tend to see who they are in the tangential ways; Bernie Madoff does something illegal so "investment professionals are scum." Or a Muslim extremist blows something up, so the Arab world is a danger. That sort of thing. They see the Christian or the Dutch person or the Venture Capitalist. Many people flat out just define themselves in those ways, inviting others to see them as those things. Far too often the people defining themselves in those tangential ways are the ones doing bad things and then associating it with the secondary trait. Osama Bin Laden does ****ty things. And then invites the world to associate it with Islam, for example.

I just loved the fact that this seemingly humble guy, made a much different statement about Islam, and he let his actions carry the POSITIVE statement, rather than the reserve of that, which many Americans have gotten sensitized to -- people with bad character traits using Islam to try to justify their NEGATIVE behavior.

 

[Michael Echan]

I am in complete agreement with what you said.

 

[Liut]

Very refreshing story, as are the comments above.