Cab Driver Finds $221,510

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal has the story of Adam Woldemarim, a cabbie in Vegas who found a left-behind laptop bag stuffed with $221,510 in cash.

He turned it in. An hour later, the owner, a man in his late 20s wearing a T-shirt, gave him a $2,000 tip. The cab driver was thrilled, but his friends weren’t…

Woldemarim is happy. He wasn’t expecting anything. Now he’s got $2,000. Let’s see: Rent is $400. His family, his brothers and sisters, his mother and father, he’ll send them some in Ethiopia. He feels like he just won a mini lottery. Life is good.

But then friends and fellow cabdrivers hear the story.

“That’s all?” they ask. “How about 10 percent, at least? That’s $20,000!”

Others yell, “How about 15 or 20 percent? That’s the going rate for tips in Vegas, after all.”

But Woldemarim probably knows not to push his luck, which has already been good to him. He “came here seven years ago, one of 3,000 lucky Ethiopians each year whose names are chosen in a U.S. government visa lottery.”

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