A 63-year-old German got a nice Christmas surprise when a scrupulously honest passer-by returned his backpack full of gifts and 16,000 euros in cash, which he had forgotten under a tree.
The 51-year-old bystander alerted police after tripping over the bag near the town center of Krefeld in western Germany shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve. The police were able to quickly identify the owner, to whom they returned the backpack and its precious contents.
The man who found the bag "refused a reward because it was Christmas," Krefeld police wrote on Facebook. "There really are people who do good deeds at Christmas." In Germany, anyone returning a found item can receive a reward based on the value of the item. In this case, the man could have received 490 euros if he had accepted the reward.
The police post telling the story on Facebook quickly attracted more than 1,000 likes and some 180 comments, with some questioning why someone would walk around with such a large amount of cash on him. A Krefeld police spokesperson said Thursday that although it was "unusual", the owner of the bag said he "felt safer" carrying his money on him.
