While Christmas cheer is in the air, a good samaritan from Mumbra made Qamruddin Shaikh's Christmas week unforgettable. The rickshaw driver returned a bag of Rs1.5 lakh gold necklace, purse with some cash and eatables, which Shaikh had forgotten in his rickshaw on Saturday midnight.
What happened?
Shaikh and his family is grateful to Mumbra's rickshaw driver Mohammed Iqbal Mukadam, 38. On December 20, Shaikh, his wife Almas and their 10-year-old son gone to Somaiya hall in Kausa to attend their relative's wedding.
"Around midnight, we took a rickshaw from the hall for Mulund check naka as there were no trains that day," said Shaikh, who stays at New Mill road, Kurla west. The Shaikh's were to board another rickshaw for Kurla from Mulund. They had a bag which contained his wife's gold necklace worth Rs1.5 lakh, a purse with cash Rs4,000 and a tiffin given to them by their relatives. "When we alighted at Mulund check naka to hail another rickshaw, we forgot to take the bag," he said. The Shaikh's were about to board another rickshaw when they recollected that the bag was missing. "We went to nearby petrol pumps to find the Mumbra rickshaw driver, but all efforts in vain," he said. He then distributed his visiting cards among the other drivers and told them to inform him if someone comes with a bag.
It was only on Monday, when the Shaikh's got a call from his wife's tailor Ramji, who has a shop at Sonapur lane, Kurla west, informig him that the rickshaw driver from was at Ramji's shop.
How did the rickshaw driver located the bag owner?
The lost bag had a receipt of Ramji tailors which was the only point of contact for Iqbal. It had his landline number and when Iqbal called the shop, nobody answered as it was shut on Sunday. On Monday, Iqbal decided to search for Ramji. On Monday, Iqbal came to Kurla from Mumbra and went to Sonapur lane in Kurla east, but could not find the Ramji tailors. On probing further, he found out about a Sonapur lane in Kurla west. Around 1.15pm, he located Ramji and showed him the receipt he found in the bag. Ramji contacted Almas Shaikh, wife of Qamruddin, who reached the shop.
"We were elated and grateful for the way he searched for us. He told us that he did not bring the bag with him and asked us to collect it from his Amrut nagar residence in Mumbra," said Shaikh.
Needy but not greedy
On December 23, Almas went to Iqbal's home and collected the bag. "Iqbal's parents are bed-ridden and he has to take care of his three children and a wife along with them. Though needy, he was not greedy and returned our bag," said Shaikh, who was touched Iqbal's this selfless gesture.
'I do not own what I do not earn'
When dna contacted Iqbal, he said he believes in earning money and not stealing or grabbing what is not his. Iqbal's wife had told him to look for the bag's owner for a month and later donate that money to charity. "In past also, I have returned four to five mobile phones to the passengers who forgot them in my rickshaw. Once, I found a purse which did not have any money, but important documents like a pan card, voters identity card, ATM card," Iqbal said. He continued, "It had belobged to a resident from Uttar Pradesh. I knew that these documents are important and one has to spend a lot of time to get them made. So I couriered them on the mentioned address," said Iqbal.
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