New York cabbie teaches honesty to children
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group of schoolchildren
gave Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the wrong answer about
honesty Monday as he thanked a Pakistani taxi driver
for returning more than $10,000 in lost cash to a Belgian tourist.
Syed Shah, 33, found $10,042, a Belgian passport and a
leather bag in his cab late Friday night and
reported it to the police. The money was returned to
an elderly woman tourist, who was not identified by authorities.
``Now, if you found that money what would you do?'' Giuliani
asked the children, guests for the morning at City Hall.
``Keeeep Iiiiitt!'' they replied in sing-song unison.
With the audience laughing, the mayor told the elementary
schoolchildren: ``No, no, the reason we have Mr Shah here is to
teach you a different answer. ``If you found that money
and it wasn't yours, you should return it.
Only bad people keep things that don't belong to them,'' Giuliani said.
Shah, who immigrated to New York six years ago, said his
Muslim upbringing taught him to be honest. ``I am a religious person
and my religion teaches me that I am supposed to be nice to
other people,'' Shah said. ``If I had kept
the money I would feel guilty my whole life.''
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service
