An Israeli Arab was thanked Thursday after returning hundreds of thousands of shekels erroneously left in his taxi cab by a well known Meah Shearim money changer.
The story began to unfold when the money changer, Reuven Kroizer, discovered that he had mistakenly left a bag stuffed with about 300,000 shekel in a cab when he was traveling from the bank to his money changing shop.
Kroizer and his assistant quickly contacted the police, who used the information given to them to identify the taxi driver. Police then contacted the man, an Israeli Arab from east Yerushalayim, and explained the situation to him.
To his credit, the taxi driver drove immediately to the police station to return the money to its rightful owner.
The commander of the Lev HaBira station, Shloimy Tabul, said: “Vigilance and quick reporting of the incident at the police station, along with professional investigators who acted quickly to locate the taxi driver, are the ones who at the end of the day brought a large amount of money back to their owners and a happy ending to the story.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
13 Responses
Ah for the good days when Israel was a third world country, and the frum money changers offered better than the “official” rate, and would never think of talking to the police, or banks.
“Vigilance and quick reporting of the incident at the police station, along with professional investigators who acted quickly to locate the taxi driver, are the ones who at the end of the day brought a large amount of money back to their owners and a happy ending to the story.”
Now that’s an ungrateful statement. Perhaps a mention should have been made of this kind driver or his Mohammadian faith.
Individually, Arabs are some of the most honest human beings you will ever meet.
you see how nice it is when you have a right wing government in Israel? everyone starts behaving
Ari
Until they are not and it just seemed so. Never trust an Arab so stories just go on and on.
Maybe I’m just a “dumb American” who doesn’t understand, so can someone please explain?
1 – Who knowingly gets into a taxi with an Arab driver?
2- Who gets into a taxi carrying hundreds or thousands of shekels and isn’t extra-vigilant about keeping a close eye on his belongings?
1. How in the world does someone forget a bag full of cash, especially since presumably the entire point of his trip involved the cash?? If I was carrying 1/10 of that cash on me, it would never leave my hands. I think it may be time for this man to find a new parnassah.
2. The article thanks and praises everyone and their mother for returning the money, except for the driver who actually returned cash (which he could very well have easily denied and kept). I can only imagine the headlines and article if the roles were flipped [HUGE KIDDUSH HASHEM!! MI K’AMCHA YISROEL!!! RACHMANIM B’NEI RACHMANIM!!!]. On the other hand, I am very skeptical that the outcome would have been the same if the roles were flipped.
Individually, Arabs are some of the most dishonest (human?) beings you will ever meet. I live here, I know.
#besalel: If this account is accurate, the Arab didn’t return the money on his own. Only after the police called. Nu nu…
Avi K. – Yes, along with avery other nationality out there. And to say so is probably an Issur of Lo Sechanem.
I hope the money changer gave the cab driver a reward.
he didn’t voluntarily return the money.he only returned it when he realized they know he had it. he decided it wasn’t worth his while to fight about it. big difference!
@steephen
Yes; very good point.