Singapore student finds $30,000 in cash in public toilet and returns it to rightful owner

Owner of the money says he ‘forced’ the student to take accept a cash reward - and he even tried to return that

Student tells how he 'freaked out' when he stumbled upon almost £15,000 cash in Singapore dollars

(Aleksandr Zykov/flickr/CreativeCommons)

Students get a tough time of it: they’re untidy, loud, spend all their loan money on Jägerbombs - then complain they’re skint and can’t afford food for the rest of the month - and can't get themselves out of bed in the morning for class. (Sorry, students. You’re not that bad).

However, if you do tend to tar students with the same brush, you’re being urged to think again as this one young man from Singapore may just restore your faith in our young scholars.

Marine and offshore technology student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Tony Wang, has been praised for finding $30,000 (£14,482) in cash - and returning it to its rightful owner.

The 22-year-old, originally from China and now living in the residential district of Toa Payoh in central Singapore, visited a public toilet where he found an envelope stuffed with $1,000 (£482) notes, reported The New Paper Online.

Not one to keep the mountain of cash for himself, the young man handed the money into his local police station where it was reunited with its terrified owner, 50-year-old Mohamed Rafeeq, manager of a currency exchange service.

Turns out one of Mr Rafeeq’s 73-year-old employees “absent-mindedly” left the envelope (as you do) in the restroom, for which he was “chided.”

As a token of appreciation, Mr Rafeeq told the site he gave Mr Wang a reward of $500 (£241) which he hoped the student would spend on his education. The shop owner told how he had to “force” the student to take - and he even tried to return that back to Mr Rafeeq only ten minutes later.

Mr Rafeeq described Mr Wang as being “a really kind and sincere boy” and said he really appreciated the student’s actions.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic said on its Facebook page it was “very proud of [Tony’s] kind deed,” adding: “A round of applause, please!”

So, what did Mr Wang spend his reward on? Nothing. In fact, it’s been sitting in a drawer, untouched. He told The New Paper: “I don’t have anything I need to spend [it] on, so I just kept his token of goodwill.” What a guy.