THIMPHU (ANN/KUENSEL) – A 31-year-old Bhutanese taxi driver’s act of integrity recently earned him a recognition from the country’s monarch.
Tshering Dorji was doing his routine drive around town yesterday, hoping to get a passenger.
At around 1 pm, as Tshering Dorji was driving by the Tashichhodzong viewpoint, he noticed something odd on the side of the road.
Tshering had three passengers in his taxi at the time. He stopped his vehicle to inspect the item on the road, but since he thought the traffic police might reprimand him for obstructing the flow of traffic, he asked one of the passengers to check what the item was.
“It turned out that it was a bag,” Tshering said, “Upon inspection, we found that the bag belonged to an Indian tourist.”
Tshering said that he focused on driving while his passengers were going through the contents of the bag. “There was a lot of money and other documents inside the bag.”
“I thought that more than the money, the documents inside the bag would be of great importance to the tourist because we all know how it feels to lose our documents,” Tshering said.
Tshering then drove to the police station to hand over the bag to the authorities. While he was waiting there, the Indian tourist and his guide reached the station.
“The tourists thanked me for what I did and he introduced me to his parents, who were waiting outside of the station,” Tshering said.
The bag contained BTN43,000 and INR16,000 in cash, ATM cards, and personal cards of Yogen Tshering Bhutia from Darjeeling.
His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck awarded a Soelra to Tshering Dorji for showing this gesture of integrity and honesty.
