This Odisha Man Travelled 150 Km To Return Lost Wallet

Bhubaneswar: Mudbir Khan of Bhubaneswar has proved that good samaritans still exist in our society.

Mudbir, a security guard working in an autonomous organisation under the Human Resource Development Ministry in the Odisha capital on a meagre salary travelled nearly 150 km to return the wallet of a paediatrician, who had accidentally dropped it while eating by the roadside near Fortune Tower here on Tuesday evening.

The 35-year-old had just finished his shift and was on his way home to cook dinner for himself when he chanced upon the wallet containing a few thousand rupees, a credit card, debit card and Aadhaar card. The wallet belonged to a person called Jyoti Prakash Ram, a paediatrician working in Jamshedpur.

“I found a bill of a shop in Jamshedpur and called on the landline numbers mentioned on it. They said that they did not know anything about Ram. I was worried for the man who had lost his wallet as I too had once lost my wallet,” said Khan. He then found Ram’s address from his Aadhaar card and decided to head for Fakirpur village in Keonjhar district on Tuesday evening.

When he reached Anandpur town in Keonjhar district late on Tuesday night, he did not get any vehicle to go to Fakirpur village. He spent the night at the local bus stand. On Wednesday morning, he rode a pillion on a local boy’s bike. The biker dropped him 3 km ahead of Fakirpur village after which Khan walked down to the village.

While asking for directions, Khan met a friend of Ram who immediately conveyed the news of the wallet over the phone. But just to be sure that he was at the correct address, he asked for the Aadhaar card of the paediatrician’s father Gopal Ram. “When I compared the Aadhaar card of the father with his son I became doubly sure. Only then I handed over the wallet,” said Khan, who refused to take any reward. However, the doctor’s family insisted that he take the cost of the journey.

“I did nothing great. The only thing that bothered me was the anxiety of the man who had dropped his wallet,” said Khan.

Ram’s brother said, “He is one in a million. We are very happy to meet such a man who comes forward to help people.’’