Japanese Woman Finds Wallet With ¥1M, Returns It And Something Even Better Happens

Japanese Woman Finds Wallet With 1M yen, Returns It

This is the kind of story that will restore your faith in Humanity!

During a late train ride, Mikan (@mikakawa1 on Twitter) finds something under her feet. It was a wallet  but nobody was with her in the train. She looks inside the wallet and finds money. Nothing surprising so far.

But the number of bills inside the wallet is actually impressive! When she finishes to count, she finds out that there’s around 1 million yen in the wallet, which is around $10,000!

Well, at this point, I think everybody would think twice before to return the wallet. But Mikan didn’t hesitate a second! After finding the owner driving license with his home address on it, she managed to find his phone number after calling the phone provider.

She finally calls the owner.

“What, you found my wallet?” he replies.

He couldn’t believe it! He was trying to find it all day, without any luck.

During the call, the owner of the wallet insisted on giving Mikan a reward. She refused but he didn’t give up and he finally got her to accept ¥300,000 which is around $3,000.

They finally meet and she returns the wallet and get the reward.

But the story doesn’t end here!

Mikan gave back the wallet because “it was the right thing to do”, not for the reward. So she decided to also return the money (¥300,000) to the mailbox of the owner with a letter saying:

“Your appreciation is enough.”

And you, what would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments!

Read more: Lifestyle In Japan – How Japanese People Really Live

7 Comments
  1. One night as I was walking from Yokosuka to Kingugasa, I passed an elderly Japanese lady. This lady was probably about 80-90 years old, short and hunchback. After passing her for about 20 yards, I found a coin purse on the ground. I picked up the coin purse and to my amazement, it was filled with 10,000 yen bills rolled up. I did not count it but it must have been maybe 20-30 bills.

    The street was lined up with shops but all of the shops were closed already. I turned to look back and I saw the elderly lady backtracking back, scanning the ground as if she had dropped something and was looking for it. I quickly walk back toward her and handed her the coin purse. She smiled, pat me on my shoulder and said “thank you” in English to me. As I turned to walk away, she grab my hand and handed me a couple bills but I declined it. It’s been almost 20 years and I just remember this after reading this story.

  2. That is japan way ,japanese were kind and good .i been to japan before pandemic ,my friend and i went to hodpital for her medical check up but when we were walking back to ride a taxi to train station i notice that the walking stick is gone so we walk back to street going back to hospital ,i saw it on side of the road bu the wall ,someone might have found it and put it on side thinking owner might look it back .

  3. That was good and honest and sincere decision. I ll do the same. 18 yrs im been working to hotels here and abraod. I faithfully return all valuable and non valuable thing i have found in the guest room. My belief is it is not mine and should return to the person who owns the item. Its good to sleep without gulit in your heart.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.