Honest Taxi Driver returns £10,000 to Passenger

An unlikely friendship has flourished between Mohammed Nisar and his passenger, after he returned a bag full of cash that was left in the back seat of his taxi to its rightful owner.

The forgetful Adrian Quinn, 46, left his bag full of cash, totalling £10,000 on Nisar’s taxi. The penny only dropped once Nisar had driven away.

Unable to initially figure out how to get his money back, Quinn was left ‘dazed’ and ‘physically sick’.

He expressed: “It was a case of ‘oh my life what have I done here?’”

Luckily for Quinn, he managed to get the message to the taxi rank who alerted Nasir to keep a safe hold of the highly-priced bag.

Within ten minutes, a flustered Quinn had flanked another taxi and was reunited with his money. Nasir, still unaware of the contents of the bag, was only told how much the bag meant to his passenger once he handed it over.

Reaction from the Pakistani taxi driver was one of humanity and satisfaction: “I was so shocked and I was happy to give it back.”

Asked why he was carrying such a large amount of cash, Quinn replied: “We had a few sales and the money just mounted up.”

With no accessibility to a bank in his rural Herefordshire, a trip to his branch in Walsall was required to deposit the cash.

The amount in question was no drop in the ocean for Quinn who runs a sole trader company, CQ Cars, with wife Maria.

The money was cashed from a cheque he received as inheritance from his mother’s death in October 2014.

Quinn said: “It would have been the end of my business. With that amount, it wouldn’t fold into an envelope or fit in my pocket, [so] I decided to use a bag. Obviously not used to having a bag, I left it on the back seat.”

Quinn later travelled back to Walsall with his family to personally thank Nasir for his honesty.

He also rewarded Nasir with a token gesture of money sealed in an envelope marked ‘to my best friend in the world’.

Nasir has been driving his taxi for 15 years and has often found valuable personal items such as mobile phones on his back seat. He prides himself on returning lost property to their owners and had previously brought back £150 in cash to a passenger.

He said: “Honesty is the best policy. My message to all of my taxi driving brothers is that if they find something valuable just give it back.”

Along with the cash reward, Quinn has invited Nasir and his family to his house for a meal.

Quinn said: “I’ve said it a hundred times to him and I’ll say it a hundred more times until the day I die; he’s such a genuine, nice man and I just can’t thank him enough. He is my friend for life.”

It seems Nasir’s act of goodwill has fostered an unlikely ‘bromance’ between the two men from different walks of life and cultures.

Both Quinn and Nasir can laugh together about the incident in hindsight and leave the meter running on their new found and highly ranked friendship.