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We have an office manager of Indian Nationality, has worked for us for the past 8 years.

He called me this morning at 7:30am and told me that he had found an envelope on the windscreen of his pick-up when he was starting out for the office. I asked him what was the problem, he told me that it contained a large sum of money and an Egyptian Passport, I asked him how much money, so he proceded to count it and the total was Dhs117,503/-, he asked me what he should do, I told him to bring it to the office and we would try to find the owner of the passport or hand to the Police.
About 3 hours later an Egyptian Gentleman came to the office and said that he got the address from the watchman in the apartment building and he was tring to get to see all of the residents. Our office manager asked him what was the problem, and the guy said that he had left an envelope in the car park at approx 10pm yesterday evening, but he didn't know where he left it, our manager asked him what was inside so the guy replied Dhs117,503 and his passport, at this point our manager handed over the envelope and asked the guy to check and make sure everythong was inside. This was done and the guy was extremely gratefull for getting his cash and passport back.
He then offered a generous tip to our Office manager for his honesty etc.

My question is;

How much do you think he offered?

This is absolutely true.

First off all kudos to everybody involved for their honesty and second as to the tip offered. I'm gonna low ball. Between 10 to 100 dhs ?

because you said "generous"...I am going to say 10,000 AED. Generous in these parts could be as little as 500 though. I have lost my wallet and 2 phones in taxis in my 3+ years here, each time offering 500 AED. One driver took it, one would not hear of it, and another just wanted me to call his boss. (I honoured all requests). If it were ME, I would have considered that money lost and offered 10k if I got it back.

The only exception would be if it was not his money, and he lost it on behalf of someone else and would be in trouble for losing it/stealing it. If he was a poor man and the money came out of his pocket, 10 AED would be a kind gesture.

No idea.

I'd like to think that it was a generous tip - but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 100dhs. (Again, not going by nationalities - just thinking of human nature. )

I'd rather be proved wrong and therefore will guess that it was a small amount. Say 500dhs.

Cheers,
Shafique

DD, the Egyptian said it was "generous", not Sage. What is generous to one is little to another. When you reveal the amount, let us know what did the driver think of the tip???

I'm with Shaf on this. 500AED. If it was me and I lost only my passport, I would give 500AED to the finder for the passport alone!!!

Kudos to the driver. You are lucky to have such an honest man working for you. He certainly restores faith in mankind. Let's see what the Egyptian did for mankind!!

1k

I will not keep you all in any further suspense, he offered our man Dhs3.00, yes thats right three dirhams, I am totally gobsmacked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sage & onion wrote:I will not keep you all in any further suspense, he offered our man Dhs3.00, yes thats right three dirhams, I am totally gobsmacked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Son of a....

I was going to say 30K...

3 Karma, karma, karma.

BTW, necessary to mention that the finder is Indian?

I ws the guy wanted to round down to 117,500!

I think his mother should have married his father!

Why am I not surprised.

And yes the nationalities does put a lot into perspective.

Three chips? What a complete tool. Three? I think it is nec. to mention the fellow is Indian, as obviously, if he is a driver is not bringing home a huge buck. Screw it..from now on, finders-keepers! You still have that name and PP #? I think he needs a visit from DD's knee-breakers.

Ambassador wrote:I was going to say 30K...

3 Karma, karma, karma.

BTW, necessary to mention that the finder is Indian?

I ws the guy wanted to round down to 117,500!

I think his mother should have married his father!

I don't think they allow sisters to marry their brothers!!!

-- Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:17 pm --

I'm so sad to hear that Sage. Your driver did the right thing and that counts for more than anything. Can't put a price on honesty.

3 out of 117,503?!!
Well surely the manager didn't return the money for the tip!

But the other guy can be a model for the extreme of being cheap!

Sorry, but I just swore and nearly fell off my chair.

sheesh.. (not what I said).

That really does take the biscuit.

Cheers,
Shafique

Three chips. How tight. How shocking. Can't wait to see this place in my rear view mirror. What a joke.Tell your boy to keep it next time, Sage. I doubt Shaf swore, if he did that makes me feel *that* much better.

That shouldn't come as a surprise, most Egyptians are tight!

3 is worse than giving nothing; its like ridiculing the gesture of honesty of the finder. And although my faith in mankind would have been restored on the one hand, but would have been totally destroyed on the other.
This was a really bad thing to do for the Egyptian. It would have been alright if he had turned his fat behind and just walked away.

Chocoholic wrote:That shouldn't come as a surprise, most Egyptians are tight!

So are Cumbrians.

4GetMeNot wrote:So are Cumbrians.

When I was in London, the locals would always tell me not to go to the North Of England. The old saying there is:"Civilization ends at Watford."
And its so true.....

What did your office manager say when the guy offered him 3 dirhams? Unbelievable! Oh well, I hope that he at least feels good that he returned everything - just as he'd like to have anything missing returned to him. Ultimately he's got to feel good about doing the right thing rather than getting financially rewarded for doing the right thing.

kanelli wrote:What did your office manager say when the guy offered him 3 dirhams? Unbelievable! Oh well, I hope that he at least feels good that he returned everything - just as he'd like to have anything missing returned to him. Ultimately he's got to feel good about doing the right thing rather than getting financially rewarded for doing the right thing.

He calmly told him that "no its ok, I think you need it more than me", when I asked my Office Manager what he thought about the "generous offer", he replied that "God is always grateful"

sage & onion wrote:

kanelli wrote:What did your office manager say when the guy offered him 3 dirhams? Unbelievable! Oh well, I hope that he at least feels good that he returned everything - just as he'd like to have anything missing returned to him. Ultimately he's got to feel good about doing the right thing rather than getting financially rewarded for doing the right thing.

He calmly told him that "no its ok, I think you need it more than me", when I asked my Office Manager what he thought about the "generous offer", he replied that "God is always grateful"

I was wondering whether it is that the person who had lost the money is just a very honest person and would not think that returning something that was not the manager's was not such a big thing as that is what he was supposed to do...but me thinks he is just cheap as he offered "something".

I think I've seen stories either in Gulfnews or 7Days about people returning less. Maybe you should contact them so they write up a nice story (no need for the cheapskate stuff...the guy will know...)

If I had been the finder, I would have given him the 3Dhs tip back too...wrapped in a fist!



Knight

zonker wrote:

4GetMeNot wrote:So are Cumbrians.

When I was in London, the locals would always tell me not to go to the North Of England. The old saying there is:"Civilization ends at Watford."
And its so true.....

The locals in London? Local to where exactly?

BM, for once you seem to be at a loss for the correct response .
I meant the Londoners (White ones too).
I am sure you have heard that saying . Or are you too far up North?
Anyway, I dont really believe all that nonsense. It takes all sorts to make planet Earth.
And you are my darling, my drinking companion, and we have to meet up sometime to discuss all the problems of the world, and try and solve them!

zonker wrote:BM, for once you seem to be at a loss for the correct response .
I meant the Londoners (White ones too).
I am sure you have heard that saying . Or are you too far up North?
Anyway, I dont really believe all that nonsense. It takes all sorts to make planet Earth.
And you are my darling, my drinking companion, and we have to meet up sometime to discuss all the problems of the world, and try and solve them!

Let me take you to the place
Where membership’s a smiling face,
Brush shoulders with the stars.
Where strangers take you by the hand,
And welcome you to wonderland -
From beneath their panamas...
Club Tropicana, drinks are free,
Fun and sunshine – there’s enough for everyone
Pack your bags,
And leave tonight.
Don’t take your time,
Gotta move your feet, don’t you miss the flight!

^Nice of you to quote the lyrics of a song by a certain Brit Londoner - Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, the son of a Greek Cypriot immigrant! (aka George Michael).

Chocoholic wrote:That shouldn't come as a surprise, most Egyptians are tight!

Tight translates to cheap in my book. You're right Chocs. Ran across a few of them myself. I might add a few others than I've come across: Americans, Brits, South Africans, Australians, Lebanese, Emiratis, Dutch, Pakistani, Indian, just to name a few. I will also add these were people who were very comfortable financially. I'm sure having other people feed them helped them!!!

They certainly know how to get out of picking up a check, especially when they were having quite a few drinks and ordered the most expensive items on the menu: forgot wallet at home/desk/in car. Turn to wife: she didn't bring her wallet either!!! Excuse themselves when the check arrives. No offer of coming up with even half. I've seen standoffs where the check was on the table between them and my husband. Hubby always ended up picking up the tab knowing that that would be the last time we would be going out with them. To add insult to injury, more often than not they would ring up and suggest we get together for dinner again!!!

On the other hand I've also ran across some very generous nationalities: Americans (a few), Brits, Emiratis, Iranians, Russian, the occasional Egyptian, just to name a few.

My point being, Egyptians don't own cheap.

Good answer Bora. Making general comments about certain nationalities could be deemed racist

Yep wholly agree with Bora^2 and JR , Being a cheapskate should be classed as a mental disorder by the APA, Not to be confused with being thrifty