Cleaner honoured for honesty

A woman working as a cleaner at a public park in Dubai has been honoured by the Dubai Municipality for her honesty after she returned jewels and valuables worth Dh20,000 she found in a washroom. Basiron Abdul Gani, whose salary is said to be just Dh500, found a hand-bag in a washroom at Al Mamzar Park some two weeks ago. “It was when she was about to leave after the work, but she kept the bag with her and waited (for) a long time in front of the washroom for the owner to come back,” a statement from the civic body said on Thursday. “The owner came back frantically after a thorough search in all places in the park where she found Basiron waiting for her, holding her bag,” the municipality said. The honest deed was promptly appreciated by the municipality’s Parks and Horticulture Department. “In this fast-paced modern life, very few people think to be honest. Here, our sister Basiron has been honoured for her honesty regardless of her poor living situation, to the extent that she didn’t even open the bag, which included precious jewels and money estimated at around Dh20,000,” said Department Director Ahmed Abdul Kareem. Speaking to Khaleej Times, Abdul Kareem said Basiron was an Indian employee of a company that has contracted the cleaning operations in the park. “We gave her a certificate of appreciation and a cash award,” he said. “Honesty should be honoured wherever we found it as it has become something that people are losing day by day in our daily life,” he noted.