(For new reader and those who request 好友请求, please read my 公告栏 first).

The last two days, the Boston media (TV, Radio and Print) featured a “feel good” story about a homeless person  who found a backpack on the street with some $42,000 (cash and traveler checks) in it. Instead of pocketing the cash he turned the backpack over to the police who managed to track down the owner through a Chinese  passport also found in the backpack.

This homeless man was honored by the city government for his honesty and inspired someone in Florida  to start a website to collect donations as reward for his honesty. The nation wide donation currently stood at over &50,000. Thus this honest person is being amply rewarded.

However, what is curious in all of these hoopla is that nothing is reported about the owner of the original backpack  with the cash in it and whether or not he offered any rewards to the finder. He is clearly Chinese as the picture of the passport showed. Did he just take back the content without thanking anyone? Did he gave  too small a reward that the TV station is embarrassed to report it (note 1)? Did he not know that it is  proper to reward the finder for such an honest act? After all, the Boston city government honored this person with a shiny certificate. The fellow countrymen of this person were so moved to reward him  with $50,000. Surely any visiting Chinese in the US carrying such amount of money should know enough  and show some gratitude to the finder. My only logical conclusion is that this person is a courier carrying illegal and/or corrupt money and does not want any publicity. Thus he just quickly disappeared.  The readers can decide and form their own opinions.

(note 1. Reader may ask what should  be the proper reward in this case. My guide is what is known as the  “finder fee”  –  often associated with people who discover money making opportunities for others.  Typical finder fee is 5% of the total which in this case works out to about $2,000. This seemed reasonable.)

Note added 9/21/2013 for the conspiracy minded: The US media are very independent. They usually dig out any news worthy facts associated with a story. The fact there seems to be total absence of information on the owner of the cash may imply there are active government black out of information and cooperation. There may be a much bigger back story either the US or Chinese government does not want to be publicized. Just another thought.