Honesty pays, and Liberian Emmanuel Tuloe can attest to this.

The 19-year-old primary school dropout is now back in school after his act of returning a stack of cash to its rightful owner caught the attention of the powers that be.

Emmanuel was working as a motorcycle taxi driver when he found US$50,000 in a mix of US and Liberian notes, wrapped in a plastic bag by the side of the road, last year.

Instead of pocketing the life-changing amount, Emmanuel gave the money to his aunt for safekeeping, and when the rightful owner of the money bag appealed for it on national radio, the honest youth returned it.

Emmanuel's honesty caught the eye of the Liberian President George Weah, who gave him US$10,000. The owner of a local media also gave him some cash, and the owner of the returned money also gave Emmanuel some goods.

The turn of events has enabled Rick to enrol himself at Ricks Institute, one of Liberia's most prestigious boarding schools. The fact that Emmanuel is at least six years older than his classmates is not putting off the youth off his quest to be better in life.

Now, a college in the US has even offered Emmanuel a full scholarship once he completes his secondary education.

According to Emmanuel, he was mocked by many when he wanted to return the cash, saying that he would die poor.

Educators are paying extra attention to Emmanuel as he had dropped out of education aged just nine, but he's catching up pretty well, said reports.

Emmanuel will be 25 when he completes school, but he is unperturbed. He wants to study accounting in university so that he can learn to "help guide the use of the country's money."

Thanking God and his parents for teaching him honesty, Emmanuel has one message to young people: "It's good to be honest; don't take what does not belong to you."

Such an inspiring youth indeed. Emmanuel could have taken the shortcut by pocketing the money for himself, but he knows that it would only give him temporary satisfaction, and misery to the rightful owner of the cash.

Emmanuel's story should be shown to all youngsters to teach the virtues of being honest.


Source: BBC
Photo source: BBC