JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli taxi driver who is used to finding items left in his cab by passengers was surprised to find a bag containing $60,000 in the back seat.
Moshe Barkat made the discovery at the end of his shift on Friday, then immediately tried to figure out who forgot to take the bag of $100 bills, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.
“People usually forget cellphones, small change, but this sort of sum?” he said.
Barkat finally located the passengers: an elderly woman in a wheelchair accompanied by two young men. He had taken them to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. The money was earmarked to fund medical treatments for the woman there.
Barkat, who lives in Bat Yam, a coastal city south of Tel Aviv, said they “weren’t very excited to get the money back. I thought they would cry from joy, but it didn’t happen.”
He said it never occurred to him to keep the cash.
“I am a man of faith,” Barkat said. “The money isn’t mine, and I returned it wholeheartedly.