RU student returns lost cash to owner

"How did the money come here?" is the question that cropped up in her mind when Sumi discovered a bag full of cash along with her shopping bags.

She was perplexed, but she knew she was going to do what her family has taught her to do.

“That was someone's hard-earned money. It is my duty to return it to the owner," said Sumi after handing the Tk 1 lakh cash over to its owner. "My family has always taught me to be honest. That's what I did.”

Sumi Ara Khatun is a master's student of mathematics at Rajshahi University. On Wednesday morning, she shopped at RDA Market in Rajshahi city and bought some clothes from Usha Fashion. While shopping, she felt unwell and requested the shopkeeper to keep some of her shopping bags, which she would collect later.

When back home from the market, Sumi found that one of the bags contained the cash. Though immediately puzzled, she soon realised that the shop owner must have mistakenly slipped the bag of money while returning her shopping bags.

“Finding a mobile [phone] number written on the back of the bag of money, I called them and asked if they have lost anything,” Sumi said.

"But they were unaware of their lost money at first. An hour later, they called me up and told me that they had lost 1 lakh taka from their shop."

Yesterday, Sumi returned the cash to Usha Fashion owner Ashraful Alam Setu at her department corridor, in presence of a few teachers and students.

"I'm very happy...I will be grateful to this woman for her honesty," Setu said after getting his lost money back.

“We tried to give her 10,000 taka as reward, but she declined to take it,” he said.