Hello all,
Please read this story. A story on the honesty of a Mumbai cab wallah.

The groom in the story is my wife's cousin.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2009122620091226020119200b72b7e91

Why you should flag down this man’s cab


Shahabuddin returned a newly-wed couple the suitcase they had forgotten in his cab. It contained valuables worth over Rs 50,000

By Virat A Singh
Posted On Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 02:01:19 AM


For Sunil Malkani and his bride Bansi Kotecha, who had come to India from London to get married, the best wedding gift came from a cab driver they had never met until the day of their nuptials on December 22.

Shahabuddin, the honest cabbie

Shahabuddin, who ferried the couple from Bombay Gymkhana to their Kemps Corner home after the wedding reception, turned up an hour-and-a-half later to return a bag full of jewellery and bridal clothes worth more than Rs 50,000 that they had forgotten in his cab. What really floored the couple was his refusal to put a price on his honesty.

Recollecting the day’s events, Bansi, director of an online advertising firm in London, said, “After the reception, I kept the jewellery in a bag. Then we finished lunch and took a cab at around 3.45 pm. While we carried the other bags, we forgot the bag with the jewellery in the cab’s boot space. Only after reaching home did we realise that the bag was missing and panicked.”

“I started crying. The jewellery had more emotional value than its monetary cost, as some were given to me by my mother. We were simply floored by Shahabuddin’s honesty. He came to our house to return the valuables, but did not expect anything from us,” she added. “What he has done enhances the image of the entire cab driver community in Mumbai.”

Bansi’s mother-in-law Neena Advani said she was quite sure that the cab driver would return with the bag. “In the short interaction we had with Shahabuddin while travelling in his cab, he came across as a very courteous and nice human being. We neither had the cab number nor knew his name, so we didn’t know what kind of complaint we could lodge. Forgetting the bag was our mistake. We only had one hope – that he would return it to us,” Neena said.


Sunil Malkani and his bride Bansi Kotecha on their wedding day.


Shahabuddin too had no clue that the family had forgotten the bag in his cab. He saw it only when he opened the boot to remove an oil can after reaching Byculla to hand over the taxi to the night shift driver, Mohammed Irshad Khan. “Without wasting a minute, both of them decided to come to our building at Kemps Corner to hand over the bag. They met the security guys – who had already been told about the missing bag – and were brought up to our home,” Neena added.


The suitcase they left in Shahabuddin’s taxi


What amazed the family was that Shahabuddin had not even opened the bag, as all its contents were intact. “He knew that it was a marriage party, and the bag would probably contain valuables. Forget opening the bag, he did not even ask for any money for bringing it from Byculla to Kemps Corner. Even when we offered, he refused to take money. We finally pressed a Rs 500 note into his hand,” a grateful Bansi said.

Meanwhile, Good Samaritan Shahabuddin seemed to have done his duty and become a faceless entity among thousands of cab drivers who ply their trade in Mumbai. All our efforts to contact him remained fruitless.



Enjoy!

I've always found Mumbai auto and taxi drivers to be the most honest and trustworthy in comparison to many other metroes in India.

Even in Mumbai if you go towards the Navi Mumbai side you'll find a totally different type of guys.

The worst of the guys is a straight competition between New Delhi and Chennai.

There was an actual incident when a foreigner arrived in Chennai airport and got into a taxi to go to the city. When the foreigner asked how much the driver showed his palm(5 fingers). When he arrived at the hotel he asked the driver to wait and got about 50 INR to give to the driver and the driver started abusing the videshi saying that he wanted USD 50.

The police were called to settle the deal.

Be very weary of hand signs, tampered meters and other stuff when you hire private transportation in some of the metros in India.

When I wanted to go the Pearson from Mississauga and called the taxi company for a van a Desi driver was sent with the clear instruction that the fare was about 35 bucks. When the driver arrived and saw me with the luggage and waiting to go to the airport he immediately demanded 60 bucks for the same and as I was in a hurry I ended up paying the same.

Desis are Desis where they go.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

to mumbai people.

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The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi

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Originally posted by MGupta

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Originally posted by Vandematram

I've always found Mumbai auto and taxi drivers to be the most honest and trustworthy in comparison to many other metroes in India.

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Delhi taxi drivers are just opposit:

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