A woman, who is struggling to provide her children with a good education after her husband deserted her 10 years ago, gave them a valuable lesson on Sunday.
To the surprise of many, the woman, who is struggling to make both ends meet by working as a maid in several houses, handed over to the police a 8-sovereign gold chain given to her by her husband who had rejoined her two weeks ago, suspecting that he had stolen it and a mobile that he had also given her in Pallavaram.
Chandra, 38, handed over the ornaments to the inspector at the Pallavaram police station.
Her husband, Katturaja, a fruit vendor, had given her the chain to pledge saying that his sister had given the gold to him to start life afresh with the family.
Chandra, who earned the praise of police officials, said that she believes that her husband had got the gold chain through unlawful means.
She wanted the police to question her husband to find out whether or not he had stolen the gold from somebody.
“I do not want the family to use money received by pledging gold got in a wrong way. So please ask my husband if he got it from his sister or not,” Chandra requested the police officers.
When police asked Katturaja about the gold, he initially told them what he had told his wife. However, when questioned further, he said he found the gold chain and mobile in a cloth bag left on a bench at Pallavaram railway station.
Enquiries with the railway police revealed that a couple had lodged a complaint about missing gold and mobile phone a couple of days ago.
“They had left the bag on the bench and boarded an EMU two days ago. Katturaja took the abandoned bag and gave it to his wife for pledging,” the police said,, lauding the honesty of the woman.