WHEN Ghazi Adra picked up a cooler bag on the train and took it home on Friday, the last thing he expected to find inside was $US50,000 in cash. The owner, an Asian lady, boarded the Penrith-bound train at Burwood and got off at St Marys, but forgot to take it.
Mr Adra, of Mt Druitt, got on the same train at Lidcombe and was heading home when he noticed the small bag. The 68-year-old took it, hoping to find a phone number or name to identify the owner.
Mt Druitt crime manager Det-Insp Grant Bissett said the factory worker handed it in the following day. Det-Insp Bissett also explained the reason for such a huge cache of currency.
``She was given financial advice to purchase US money because of the Australian dollar being up’’ he said.
``She reported it missing at City Central.’‘
Mr Adra’s son Bill said he was ``really proud that dad went to the police station and gave it back…he has definitely done the right thing.’‘ Mr Adra spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday fielding media calls.
Mt Druitt Chamber of Commerce president Reg Murray has known Mr Adra for more than 15 years and described him as ``a great bloke’‘.
"He’s a credit to society and it’s good to highlight the fact that a lot of people in Mount Druitt are honest, hard-working folk who go out of their way to do the right thing for others,’’ he said.
"He’s a wonderful family man,’’ Mr Murray said.
The lady who lost the money met with Mr Adra yesterday to say thank you.
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him for honesty is it's own reward. What we need desperately in this world is not more people but more honest people. Nearly three thousand years ago, Diogenes of Sinope used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp; when asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am just looking for an honest man" Diogenes was looking for a human being but reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels. So what has changed in the last three thousand years and what will change in the next three thousand?
