It was a lot of money, and it could have easily made Samuela Nama­sia’s weekend.

But the young man did not give into temptation and gave back the wallet and its content to its owner.

Mr Namasia, 24, has been driving a taxi in Suva while he waits for the Fiji National University Teachers College to open in Lautoka.

Last Thursday evening, he found that a passenger had dropped his wallet con­taining $440 in cash.

“I had picked the passenger, a Police officer from Nabua, and dropped him in Cunningham,” Mr Namasia said.

“The next passenger I picked wanted to go to Qauia in Lami from Samabula. It was in Qauia when I switched the lights inside the taxi on.

“The passenger, an elderly man, was counting his coins. When I turned off the lights, I saw there was a wallet on the car floor. The elderly man said it was not his.”

Mr Namasia said he picked up the wal­let and saw that it had quite a bit of cash in it.

He said the thought of keeping the money did not cross his mind because he knew that many families were strug­gling during this pandemic.

Filled with empathy, he wondered if the same happened to him. The same night, he drove back to Cunningham and found the owner of the wallet and his wife searching for the wallet on the roadside outside their home.

The couple were lost for words when Mr Namasia returned the wallet. They could not thank him enough.

And fate has an amusing way of show­ing that his good deed did not go unno­ticed. A day later, Mr Namasia dropped his wallet.

He was called by a gentleman from one of the Government offices in Nasova and returned his wallet.

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