On April 9, Purushottam Poudel of Sitapaila, Kathmandu was heading to his daughter’s house at Dharan-9 and absentmindedly left the bag when he got off the vehicle. He had received the cash from a IME Itahari branch that he had transferred from the Capital. Poudel was thinking to take the money to his daughter, Sudha Pokharel for the purpose of purchasing a house.
But Poudel became hopeless when he came to know about it and returned to Kathmandu without informing the police. Fortunately, the bag was found by honest Anuja Baniya while travelling in Dharan. Baniya, a permanent resident of Jhulke of Bhojpur, has been staying in Dharan of Sunsari, with her uncle and aunt. She is an ordinary woman with just normal education.
When nobody claimed the bag, Baniya took it to her residence thinking to return it to the rightful owner with the help of documents that the bag possibly contained. She was dumbstruck when she opened the bag and found Rs. 9.1 million cash and a diamond necklace.
Baniya found the owner’s telephone number from the documents inside the bag and informed Poudel at his residence of finding the bag by telephone. Then Poudel came to Dharan on April 12 and received the money after three days.
According to Anita Karki, a relative of Poudel, he offered Rs. 200,000 to Baniya as a cash reward but she refused it. Poudel later tried to gift her, the diamond necklace but she refused it too.
Baniya spent some time with Poudel family after handing over the cash and valuables, but she refused to give her address and contact number. “People may not believe it. But it’s a true story of this remarkable women’s honesty,†said elated Pokharel, 65.