Seva Novgorodtsev told about the unique honesty of Muslim taxi drivers

The well-known British journalist and radio host Seva Novgorodtsev regularly shares interesting facts from his life on his blog. Here is one of them:

“It would seem that the saxophone is not a keychain with keys for you, but here you go. I forgot once, left. It was a long time ago, in 1980, but I remember that some man found my instrument, was not too lazy to find me and called me. I met with him and with the saxophone.

I remember, out of fullness of feelings, I offered the benefactor money that I could afford. It happened in London, so the question then appeared in my head - what would happen in Leningrad, Syktyvkar or Karaganda?

Or, I don’t know, in New York? No, in New York I know what happened. There the taxi driver gave a ride to the National Arts Club. The passenger is rich, he has a permanent apartment in the club. I paid over the counter, gave me a tip, only 10 dollars, and left. The driver looked around - there was a handbag, and in it were photographs of the owner with various celebrities, money and a bunch of jewelry. One of them was especially liked by the driver's wife - it shimmers in the light in different shades.

The taxi driver saw that his wife's eyes lit up and said - this is someone else's. Put it in a closet, lock it away from children. The passenger, Mr. James, contacted the lost property service, where he was informed - yes, there is such a driver named Zubiru Yalloh, he is waiting and ready to meet.

The next day, the meeting took place right outside the posh club, where the passenger exited. The driver handed the owner a purse, he gave him a thousand dollars in cash. It turns out that there were a hundred thousand family jewelry in the purse.

They ask the driver - you only get a thousand and a half a month, was there any temptation to take the find for yourself? “No”, said Zubiru firmly, “faith does not allow me. According to our Muslim concepts, taking someone else's is like eating human flesh. And for righteous deeds there will always be a reward, if not from people, then from Allah".

Mr. James also invited the driver to his swanky exclusive club for dinner. “I can't”, a morally staunch Muslim answered, - “they serve alcohol there”.

If you have doubted the moral code of the Quranic faith, I can add that in Los Angeles in 2005, an Afghan driver found almost half a million diamonds in his taxi. I found the owner, returned it. And rightly so, why does the Afghan driver need diamonds?

Dutch rower Diederik Simon won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2006 and left it in a taxi the next day. Also returned.

New York taxi driver Osman Choduri found a forgotten case with 31 diamonds in his car, was not too lazy, found, brought and received 30 cents for tea.

As Kozma Prutkov said, "virtue serves as a reward for itself"..."

It is clear that readers began to share their similar experiences, For example, like that of Natalia Mamedova:

“My brother-in-law somehow got a lot of food after the concert and got into the cop. Directly with my French saxophone for three bucks. When I regained consciousness, the cops let me out, but without the saxophone. They said we didn’t know anything, didn’t see it, and probably lost it. The guy was very sad because he earned this saxophone, working for six months in Paris. And three of them in the 1980s were unrealistic money. Six months have passed. And suddenly a familiar musician, Oleg, calls, you are looking for a good instrument, here they are selling it for cheap, they offered me. And it gives out the parameters of the "lost" one. But actually stolen by cops. A plan ripens immediately. He and his father take contacts, there is a chain and, finally, make an appointment with the seller. It turns out one of the cops. I don't know how they talked to him, but he returned the saxophone. Is free! Here's a Russian story..."

True, another reader recalled that not everything is so hopeless in our country:

“In the city of Myshkin, Yaroslavl region, a woman found a bag with 300,000 euros in it, she returned the money to the owner! Like this!"