SBS Driver Found About SGD$40K In Bus & Gave It to The Police

What would you do if you found $40,000 worth of cash on a bus?

Return it?

Keep it?

Well, that depends a lot on your moral compass.

For this bus driver, he returned it. And of course, special shoutout to the passenger who found it and handed it over to the driver.

Handed Over The Money After His Ride

The driver, who is identified as Saw Cheong Seng, initially did not pay much attention to the bag.

The bag was handed over to him by a passenger on the bus on Friday (10 May 2019) at about 8:40 a.m. The bus was at a stop across the street from Outram Park MRT station.

Maybe the bag looked ordinary? But then again, how do you forget to take your bag on the bus… 

Mr Saw was operating bus service 63 at the time.

At 59 years old, you would think that Mr Saw had seen it all. But I guess not.

Just Paper?

At a quick glance, Mr Saw thought that the stacks of paper in the bag were just betting slips.

Well, if they really were betting slips, whoever owned those slips should seek serious help, unless that someone is using them for other purposes.

He was shocked after realising that two stacks of the paper were $100 and $50 in Singapore currency.

Kaching kaching.

The pieces of paper were several centimetres thick, and the total came up to $39,602.10.

O. M. G.

He had only made this discovery after completing his round at Eunos Bus Interchange. At the interchange, he passed the bag of money to the interchange manager.

So the question is, how was he going to return it to the rightful owner?

Wanted to Return It

At this point, most of us would ask ourselves if we wanted to keep the money. After all, it’s not every day you see $40,000 worth of cash right in front of you. Right?

Or maybe just take…$999?

But would we really feel at ease knowing we just kept $40,000 that doesn’t belong to us?

Mr Saw told The Straits Times that he wanted to ensure that every cent of the money was returned back to its rightful owner.

“I would not be able to sleep tonight if I took this sum of money that does not belong to me,” he said.

He also added that he would feel troubled if his passengers were not able to get back their lost items, especially their money.

Working for Years

Mr Saw has been an SBS Transit bus driver for 13 years.

After 13 years of being a bus driver, I guess he would have encountered many occasions of passengers leaving behind their belongings in his bus.

Wallets, bottles, cards, small bags, you name it. But a bag full of money must have been a first for him.

An SBS Transit spokesperson said that the money has been handed over to the police and a police report was made.

So hopefully, the money is returned to its respectful owner. (Because money is really hard to earn these days.)

If you’re taking the bus today, remember to thank your bus driver. Although it may be a small token of gratitude for their service, they would still appreciate it.

But of course we’re all wondering: who the hell brings $40,000 worth of cold, hard cash in a bus?