THE DECENT THING TO DO

After reading the story of Madam Ong Mee Geok below, I felt proud that there are actually people out there who are honest and not greedy.  Of course, we have read of many other such stories of people who return money or things that they have found and we should make exemplars of them.  Her honesty should be lauded.

Ong Mee Geok

Woman returns winning 4-D stub

This elderly woman toils seven days a week, eight hours a day at a coffee shop, cleaning up after customers.

And earns a paltry S$600 (RM1,400) a month to feed herself and her retired husband.
Yet, she is giving away a $10,000 (RM23,300) opportunity.
Last Thursday, Ong Mee Geok, 65, got a ticket - literally - out of her tiring and thankless job.
She spotted a 4-D stub at about 2pm while sweeping the floor at the coffee shop, which is in Punggol (we are not naming the coffee shop to avoid fraudulant claims on the ticket).
Ong, who buys 4-D regularly, betting about $5 (RM11.60) each time, immediately recognised the winning numbers - 4886 - on the ticket.
The ticket would entitle the buyer to the first prize of $10,000.
Instead of cashing in on the windfall, Ong's first instinct was to call Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao and find a way through the newspapers to return the ticket to the owner.
Some people might call her crazy. Or even stupid.
When The New Paper team visited her home yesterday afternoon, her 66-year-old husband chastised her for speaking to the press.
But for Ong - who lives with her husband and two of her three adult children in a spartan three-room HDB flat in Hougang - it was, simply, the decent thing to do.
She told The New Paper in Mandarin: "I feel we shouldn't be too greedy. This ticket doesn't belong tome.
"The $10,000 is not a small sum. Imagine how 'kan cheong' (Hokkien for anxious) the owner must be."
It has been five days since her story appeared in Lianhe Wanbao, but no one has come forward to reclaim the ticket so far.
While most people who chance upon a discarded winning lottery ticket would be over the moon, the first thought on Ong's mind was: "How could (the owner) be so careless?
"I also buy the lottery. I know how it would feel to lose a winning ticket."
But she did not ask the customers who were seated nearby if the ticket belonged to them because she feared they would feign ownership.
She said: "Don't be crazy! If I asked you if this $10 (RM23) note I found belonged to you, would you say no?"
To be doubly sure that the number on the ticket was the top prize, she checked Teletext when she returned home that night.
- The New Paper
Published June 11 2010
Source: http://www.dailychilli.com/news/4312-woman-returns-winning-4-d-stub
 
COMMENT:
I wonder if she gets to claim, the money from the winning ticket if no one comes forward to it after a few months.  If that happens, then good for her.