China cabby receives $32k extra fare, goes on 5-day search to refund passenger

A taxi driver in Guangzhou, China got the shock of his life after finding an extra 170,000 yuan (S$32,000) in his Alipay account.

Du Liming discovered the extra money in his account at the end of his shift on Dec 14, after he dropped off a female passenger surnamed Chen at about 3am, reported the South China Morning Post.

According to Du, who works for an affiliate of Guangzhou Public Transport Group, Chen appeared to be drunk when he picked her up at Zhujiang East Road, as her friend had to help her into the cab.

The cabby told Chinese media that Chen was asleep the entire journey, and he had to wake her up after reaching her destination at Huangsha Avenue.

Awoken by Du, a sleepy Chen paid her cab fare with Alipay and left. 

'I thought I saw it wrong'

At the end of his shift, Du checked his account and discovered the extra money. 

He told Chinese media that instead of paying 60 yuan for her fare, Chen had accidentally paid him 170,000 yuan instead.

"At first I thought I had read the number wrong," Du said.

Upon checking the time that the transaction was made, he realised that the payment was made by Chen. 

Wanting to return the money, Du immediately called the police and contacted the customer service of the Alipay platform, Jimu News reported.

He even tried to contact Chen via the Alipay app, but she did not respond to his messages.

“But nobody contacted me,” Du said.

Reached out to local media

Seeing as 170,000 yuan was a huge sum of money, Du was determined to track down the passenger. 

"Losing things, particularly a large sum of money, is very worrying, so I wanted to find the passenger as soon as possible, " he said.

However, he was still unable to find Chen after five days.

He eventually sought help from local media to help find the passenger, which published an article about the incident.

The news caught the attention Chen's friend, who alerted her of the incident on Dec 19. 

'I finally feel at ease'

It was only then that Chen realised that she was short of 170,000 yuan in her Alipay account. 

She then contacted Du and the pair met the next day so he could return her the money. 

"I didn't sleep well the past few nights. Now that I have finally returned the money, I can finally feel at ease," Du told Chinese media.

Following the incident, Du reminded passengers not to be careless when paying fares, but to check the amount carefully.

"Fellow drivers, we must also check fare information in a timely manner to avoid losses for passengers," he added. 

Du's honesty and determination to return the passenger's money, earned praises online. "Du is so kind," a netizen said. 

"Du seemed more anxious than Chen. What a great man," another wrote.

The cabby also received an award in recognition of his honesty and kindness.

ALSO READ: This made my day: Passengers give cabby $90 tip for playing 'wonderful songs' during trip

ashwini.balan@asiaone.com