A Pakistani cleaner in Dubai has been honoured for handing over a bag containing 15kg of gold, worth around Dh2.5 million, to the Dubai Road Transport Authority.
Taher Ali Maqbool, 27, said: “Honesty is the biggest wealth.” He remarked while being honoured by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
“You can’t buy honesty even with one crore rupees. Wealth is not permanent; it is with you today, and tomorrow it belongs to someone else,” Maqbool said.
According to the honest expat, his father’s advice not to earn anything through dishonest means rang in his mind when he opened the bag and found solid gold bars inside.
“I had no clue the bag contained gold. I thought it would be tools or something when I spotted it in a corner. I informed the security guard and returned the bag without thinking twice,” he added.
Maqbool was recently honoured by Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the board of executive directors of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), which operates the parking facility in Al Sabkha were the bag was found. It is not immediately clear who the bag belonged to.
Maqbool, who is from Chakri village some 25 to 30km from Sialkot city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, said he was on night shift when he found the bag in a corner on the first floor of the parking facility earlier this month.
He called security about the find, who told him to bring the bag over to them, Maqbool said.
“The bag was really heavy. We opened it and found a tool box inside. We thought maybe a technician left his tool box behind and he will be back tomorrow to collect it.
“The next day, another security person on duty opened the tool box and we saw the gold bars inside. I wasn’t sure at first if it was really gold but I said to myself, ‘leave it, even if it is so much gold, no matter how much it is worth. It is not worth more than one dirham of honest income’. So we called the authorities and later it was confirmed that it was solid gold,” Maqbool said.
Maqbool has been working as a cleaner at the parking facility for around a month. He has been working with the same company at other locations since 2013.
