Hotel employee returns lost jewellery worth Rs 1L

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A hotel employee in Mattancherry has become the talk of the town after he safely returned gold ornaments worth over Rs 1 lakh that a woman had lost on Saturday. More commendable is the fact that he refused to accept any reward for his honest deed.

T.V. Muralidharan, 45, an accountant of the Srikrishna Cafe in Mattancherry was on his way home from the hotel at around 12 noon when he found a small bag on the road at Mangattumukku Junction. On opening the bag, he found a few gold ornaments and Rs 27,050 in cash.

Without wasting a minute, he handed over the bag to cops. His singular act of honesty saved the day for another poor family, that of Sabeena, who had lost the bag and the gold on her way back from a gold pawning centre.

“No case had been registered with us when Muralidharan brought the lost bag. A couple of hours later, a local politician contacted us saying that one of the residents of Kapalandimukku had lost her bag and that it contained a few gold ornaments. When the family learned of Muralidharan’s act, they wanted to reward him for his honesty,” a police official said.

They even went to the shop and tried to give him some money. But Muralidharan, who gets a mere Rs 8,000 a month as salary to support his family of five, was reluctant to accept anything.

“I know how it is to lose something. And I guessed the bag belonged to someone who was not affluent…..someone like me. So I did not want to take anything for what I was expected to do,” Muralidharan said.

The Mattancherry police, including ACP Binoy and SI Manoharan, later personally lauded the hotel employee for his honest deed.