LANGKAWI: A Pakistani tourist’s holiday in Langkawi turned into an ordeal when he misplaced US$5,000 (RM20,000) in cash while staying at the Langkawi Adya Hotel this week.
In spite of an exhaustive search, Muhammad Musa Karwan was unable to locate his misplaced money, and eventually checked out of the hotel and returned to his country with a tinge of regret.
But on Thursday, Muhammad received a call in Pakistan from the management of the Langkawi Adya Hotel, informing him that his money was found by one of the hotel's housekeeping staff members while cleaning up his vacated room.
Muhammad was all praise for the honesty demonstrated by the staff member – 33-year-old Siti Nuraminira Abd Rahman – and arrangements were made to deposit the money into his bank account.
But the story did not end there for Nuraminira. On Friday, she was rewarded for her integrity by PKB Hotel Management & Services Sdn Bhd chairman Nor Saidi Nanyan.
Relating her experience, Nuraminira, who is seven months pregnant, said she was cleaning up the room vacated by Muhammad and his family at noon on Thursday, and was removing linen from a baby cot when she spotted a white envelope.
"I checked the envelope and had a shock upon seeing many foreign notes in it. (I) immediately rushed down to the lobby and passed the envelope to my supervisor, Zaleha Zainordin.
"I always hold on to my mother's advice to be honest in whatever I do, and never ever take whatever belongs to others," she said after receiving her award from Nor Saidi at the hotel.
In fact, this is not the first time that Nuraminira had stumbled upon money at her place of work.
She once returned RM1,000 in cash belonging to a guest of a hotel in Kuala Lumpur where she was working two years ago.
Meanwhile, Nor Saidi, who is also the Kuah assemblyman, praised Nuraminira for her honesty.
"(Incidentally), this is not the first case of (a staff member finding and returning money to a guest).
“Last year, an employee found RM30,000 in cash belonging to a tourist from China, who only realised that he had misplaced the money while boarding a plane to return to his country," he said.
Translated from Harian Metro