Waseem Pasha, a tailor near Brigade Road, has good reason to hold his head high. The 22-year-old returned Rs 12,000 that a customer forgot in the pocket of the shirt she gave him for alteration.

On Saturday afternoon, Imola Jamir walked into his small shop in Tibetan Plaza — the basement of Indo-Dubai Complex, on Rest House Road, off Brigade Road — and gave her husband’s new shirt for alteration.

Later, when Pasha picked up the shirt to work on it, Rs 12,000 fell out of its pocket. The sole breadwinner in his family, who earns Rs 15,000 a month altering clothes, decided then and there to return the money. But he didn’t have the contact info of his customer. He had to wait till Imola returned.

Meanwhile, Imola and her husband Ben Dang Aier, both aged 47, realised the money was missing only on Sunday evening. She said, “My husband didn’t like the shirt’s collar. So, I decided to give it for alteration and surprise him. But I had no clue he had left Rs 12,000 in that shirt’s pocket. That money was meant to pay the school fees for one our daughters.”

The couple from Nagaland, who run a paying-guest in their house in Koramangala, rushed to Pasha’s shop. When they asked him if he had found any money in the shirt’s pocket, Pasha took the receipt from them, confirmed the shirt was theirs and promptly returned the altered shirt along with Rs 12,000. Imola and Ben couldn’t believe they had got the money back. They thanked Pasha and offered him Rs 500 as a reward for his honesty.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore / by Bellie Thomas / October 01st, 2013