Thread: An Honest Bangkok Taxi Driver

From the Pattaya Mail, Vol. XIII No. 15 Friday April 15 - April 21, 2005
http://www.pattayamail.com/current/news.shtml#hd2

"Honest taxi driver returns lost wallet to tourist

220,000 baht in the wallet

Boonlua Chatree

A taxi driver from Bangkok returned a wallet containing more than 200,000 baht that he discovered in his taxi after delivering a tourist from Bangkok International Airport to Pattaya.

Kamchai Wannakit, 37, a cab driver for SP Siam Inter Co Ltd, alerted Pattaya police duty officer Lieutenant Colonel Preecha Samrit to the fact he had discovered his passenger’s wallet when he stopped to clean his vehicle at the Bang Na toll way, on his way back to Bangkok.

Kamchai Wannakit proved to be an honest man when he returned a wallet with 3,000 pounds to the passenger who lost it, Ian Richardson.

Kamchai said that the wallet, containing 3,000 pounds (approx 220,000 baht) had been left on the back seat along with two cell phones. He stated that he had driven the passenger from the airport to Pattaya for the price of 1,500 baht. It was beyond his capability to track down the foreign customer to return his property, therefore he kindly asked the police to do so.

Around the same time, British visitor Ian Richardson, 37, came into the police station. Advised of the discovery of his property, Richardson said that he had often heard about the honesty of Thai people, and now he knows it to be true. He wholeheartedly thanked Kamchai for returning his money back to him.

Richardson said he had just gone to the police station to file a report and ask the police to track down the taxi driver. He didn’t know the driver’s name or license plate number. He didn’t expect that he would receive his lost money and property. Now, he said, he will tell other tourists when he goes back to England about safety for tourists visiting Thailand.

Richardson offered 5,000 baht to Kamchai as a reward, but the taxi driver at first refused and told him that he is always sincere in his service to customers.

Kamchai told reporters that he is from Khamkuankaew district in Yasothorn province, and that he had moved to Bangkok to work as a taxi driver. His wife Patchara, 35, is a hairdresser, and they have a six-year-old daughter. Times are tight because of the increased gasoline prices, he says, but he must bear this.

This is not the first time that one of his customers has left their property in his taxi. He has always tried to return any lost property to customers. This time he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to because he was already 100 kilometres away from Pattaya, and was happy and relieved that he was able to reach Richardson".


Question.

If you get into a cab and find a bag containing 220,000 Bt, what would you do?

Me? I'd tell the taxi driver to go straight to Bangkok Bank as I need to make an urgent deposit.

its actually quite old news, did you know that the pope died aswell a while back

LATEST NEWS

Monday 4th April 2005

Englishman’s relief as a good hearted Bangkok Taxi Driver returns a missing case and 3,000 pounds in cash.

This story is about an English man who left his briefcase inside a Bangkok metered Taxi after a journey from Don Muang Airport in Bangkok to Pattaya. Mr. Richardson aged 37 from England was looking forward to his well earned Holiday in Pattaya and arrived at his Hotel only to find that he had indeed left his briefcase inside the Taxi, driven by Khun Gamshai aged 42. What made matters worse was the fact that inside the case was a money bag containing 3,000 English pounds. Mr. Richardson went straight to Pattaya Police Station to file a report assuming that he would never see the case again. As he was making the report, Pattaya Police received a call from the taxi driver who had already gone back to Bangkok. Police instructed him to bring the case to Pattaya Police Station where the two men and the case were reunited. The 3,000 Pounds was still inside the case to the relief of Mr. Richardson and Police Lieutenant Colonel Prichar, the investigating officer in this case. As a gesture of good will, Mr. Richardon decided to give Khun Gamsahi, 5,000 Baht in appreciation of his honesty and cooperation which brought this particular case to a happy ending.

Added after 38 seconds:

http://www.pattayacitynews.net/news_04_04_48_2.htm

Originally Posted by MeMock

Great story:

He only offered 5000 baht as a reward? Mate if that happened to me I would have gone him halves!

I thought the exact same thing, the can hardly be hard-up walking around with that much cash.

^

Maybe it just went flat whilst trying to call the local police station to report it.








And perhaps that was a pig I saw leaping over the chao praya last night.