Honest German returns bag with 16,000 euros

INQUIRER.net stock photo

A 63-year-old man in Germany had a very Merry Christmas indeed after an honest finder returned the backpack he had forgotten under a tree — filled with presents and 16,000 euros ($17,700 or over P900,000) in cash.

The 51-year-old finder alerted police after stumbling upon the bag near the center of the western city of Krefeld shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve.

Officers were able to quickly identify the owner and reunite him with the backpack and its precious contents.

The man who found the bag “refused a finder’s fee, because it was Christmas,” Krefeld police wrote on Facebook.

“There really are people who do good deeds over Christmas,” they added.

In Germany, anyone who returns a found object is entitled to a finder’s fee based on the value of the item. In this case, the finder would have been 490 euros ($470 or about P27,700) richer if he had accepted the reward.

The police’s Facebook post sharing the feel-good story attracted over 1,000 likes and nearly 180 comments, although some expressed surprise that anyone would walk around with so much cash.

A Krefeld police spokesman told Agence France-Presse Thursday that while it was “unusual,” the backpack’s owner had said “he felt safer” carrying his money on him. RGA

RELATED STORIES:

Employee finds $7K in jacket, gives it back to owner

Money flies out of armored truck; police appeal to public to return cash