Choo Liang Sin, 80, met up with good samaritan Yusof and thanked him for honesty and kind actions to return his wallet filled with cash after the senior citizen accidentally left it on a bus.
KLUANG: Everything that could go wrong seemed to do so on 80-year-old Choo Liang Sin’s first interstate bus ride alone on May 27.
Not only did he get down at the wrong stop on the journey from Seremban in Negri Sembilan to Kluang, Johor, he also left his wallet filled with S$1,000 (RM3,199) and RM600 in cash on the bus.
A good Samaritan known as Yusof, who sat in the row next to him on the bus, noticed the wallet and called up the bus company, hoping to return it to the elderly passenger.
Choo’s niece Choo Chau Peng, 56, said the company managed to connect them about an hour later through her cousin, who bought their uncle’s bus ticket and keyed his own telephone number into the booking system.
“It was a moment of panic when I found out my uncle left his wallet behind and got off the bus at Sri Lalang instead of Taman Intan, where I was supposed to pick him up.
“He actually lives in Singapore and came to Malaysia in early May to visit our relatives in Johor and Selangor.
"He does not have a local telephone number," Chau Peng told The Star on Friday (June 3).
“I could not imagine him being alone in an unfamiliar place without any means of contacting us," she added.
Chau Peng said she rushed to the Kluang bus terminal to retrieve the wallet from Yusof before making her way to Sri Lalang, about 10km away, to look for her uncle.
“While on the way there, I received another call from my sister informing me that our uncle had safely returned home after hitching a ride from another kind-hearted stranger.
“When I finally saw him, my poor uncle said he was scared and hungry as he had no money with him and no way of contacting us.
“We are glad and grateful that everything turned out well in the end with the help of kind-hearted Malaysians willing to go the extra mile to help others,” she said.
Choo, touched by Yusof’s honesty and efforts to return his wallet, asked to meet the young man the following day to thank him in person.
“Upon seeing Yusof, my uncle gave him a big hug and began tearing up.
“He wanted to give Yusof an angpou, which he declined at first, but finally accepted after my uncle insisted that it was to treat him to coffee.
“I also sent a text message to Yusof on behalf of my uncle, who could not stop praising him for his kind deed and wished him well in life,” said Chau Peng.
Choo returned home safely to Singapore on Thursday (June 2).
The incident was widely shared on social media, garnering praises and positive messages from users.
