Aug 7, (NDTV): While at work on Wednesday, Aabid Qureshi, who pulls a rickshaw for a living, noticed an unassuming green plastic bag lying on the road. He opened it to find bundles of notes - more money than he had ever seen.
He waited by the side of a major road in Jaipur's busy market place to see if a claimant would materialize.
"At 4 pm, I found the money on the road...I waited till 10 pm," he told NDTV. Mr Qureshi earns about Rs. 200 a day from work that leaves him exhausted. He has a daughter for whose wedding he tries to set aside a little money every month.
He took the bag home on his rickshaw where he shared his discovery with his wife, Ameena Bano. Her decision was immediate.
"Why should we keep the money? No thanks , we are happy with the honest wages we earn ," she said firmly, wearing a black salwar kameez in their home.
Together, the couple headed to the police which counted the money - a labored exercise since the bag was inhabited by more than a lakh in cash, most of it in Rs. 500 notes.
"A man who is a rickshaw puller comes across one lakh rupees and gives it to the police , it's very praiseworthy,"said Janga Srinivas Rao, Jaipur's police chief, though, puzzlingly, no award has been announced yet.
Nobody has turned up so far to collect the cash. Mr Qureshi, a little baffled by the media attention, says he is nearly back to his usual grueling routine in the searing Jaipur heat.
