A Taiwanese woman nearly lost RM75,000 after she lost her backpack while riding her scooter in Taipei. – Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 – A Taiwanese woman, who initially lost NT$510,000 (RM75,731) on a Taipei street after dropping her backpack, managed to get the money back thanks to 10 passersby.
The woman, identified by her surname Zhuo, had borrowed NT$500,000 (RM74,246) from friends to start an eatery shop.
The 42-year-old, however, unknowingly dropped her backpack containing the borrowed NT$500,000, her own NT$10,000 (RM1,485), debit cards, and identification documents while riding her scooter at the New Taipei Boulevard in Xinzhuang district on Tuesday evening.
To make matters worse, the money was scattered on the road as the backpack was not properly zipped up, Taiwan News reported.
Lucky for Zhuo, 10 passersby picked up all the money and turned it over to a police station.
According to the portal, police had to borrow a money counting machine to count the money that was handed over by the passersby and the final tally they got was NT$499,967 (RM74,279).
Taking to her Facebook to thank the passersby, Zhuo said she got a call from a stranger as she was on her way home on Tuesday.
The caller, she said, asked if she had lost a blue backpack.
Zhuo was told by the caller that money was flying all over the street and some 10 people helped to pick it up.
The caller also told Zhuo that they did their best to pick up the banknotes but there was no guarantee that all money was retrieved before urging her to go to the police station to reclaim her properties.
Zhuo initially thought she would be lucky if she could get back half of the money and was pleasantly surprised to find she managed to get back almost all her money.