Altaf Chaus, owner of a Burger King outlet in San Jose, US
If you were a cleaner at Burger King and found $100,000 stuffed into a bag left behind by a customer, what would you do?
Sahista Bakawla, from San Jose, United States, was cleaning the fast food restaurant when she stumbled across a blue backpack, abandoned in a booth.
She took the bag into the back of the restaurant and called the owner, Altaf Chaus, who opened it hoping to find some ID or a phone number.
But the pair called the police when they discovered the bag was full of $100 bills.
Altaf Chaus who emigrated to the US from India said: “I opened the zipper, I see lots of money, cash money, $100 bills stack up like half the bag. I’ve been in this country 26 years and I worked two jobs for 15 years before I bought this Burger King. I’m a very hardworking man. I don’t want that money, maybe it belongs to somebody. As a Muslim, I live by the expression that “if you don’t sweat, it’s not yours.“
San Jose police also found a pack of cigarettes, candy, and marijuana in the bag and detectives are now working with a few other clues in the bag, including a list of emails and phone numbers, and a bank withdrawal slip to find the owner.
The big stash surprised the officers, but what surprised them even more was the owner’s honesty. One officer told Chaus, ‘You know what? I’m very proud and you’re a very honest man. I’ve been 20 years on duty, I’ve never seen anybody come with this amount of money to me.’”
Dr. Bilal Philips