While people crib day in and day out about the dishonesty of autorickshaw drivers who fleece them for excess fare, they forget the many who are honest and upright in their dealings with their customers.
Mohammad Babu, a 40-year-old auto driver in Hyderabad, is just one more reminder that this kind of driver is out there and shouldn’t be ignored.
Mohammad turned out to be a good Samaritan for Pushpa and Shankar from Nalgonda, when they misplaced their bag containing cash and gold in his auto.
Pushpa, her husband Shankar and her son, travelled from Golnaka to Uppal in Mohammad Babu’s auto on Friday. Getting down at Uppal, they walked towards the bus stand, but soon realised they’d left their bag behind in the auto, and rushed to the local police station to file complaint about the missing bag.
“There was Rs 2,000 cash and a 20gm gold necklace in the bag. We immediately started looking for the auto driver in Uppal,” said N Narsimha Reddy, Inspector at Uppal police station.
After an hour, the police ran into Mohammad, who had come back to the bus stand looking for the family to return their belongings. “When I saw the bag on the back seat I immediately went back to Uppal bus stand. I was hoping that they might also look for the bag. When I reached there, police was already looking for the bag so I handed over the belongings to them,” said Mohammad Babu.
The family were very happy to get back the bag that they little expected to receive, said Narsimha.
In appreciation of Mohammad’s honesty, Cyberabad Police Commissioner, Mahesh Bhagwat rewarded him with a cash award of Rs 5000 and a “Good Citizen” certificate on Saturday.