Kindness of strangers: People pull together for penniless old man

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For all the cynics out there - those touching stories where people do all they can to help a stranger retrieve his lost money are not only reserved for the realm of fairy tales or fictitious TV dramas. Indeed, such a scenario has found a real-life incarnation, in east China's Shandong Province.

Cheng Yanxin/Qilu Evening News Photo

A downcast and elderly street cleaner in the city of Binzhou recently discovered that he was surrounded by kindness, after he lost all of his money but got it back, thanks to strangers who spontaneously shared their own cash with him, under the pretext of returning his missing salary.

Cheng Yanxin, the 70-year-old sanitation worker, on Thursday unexpectedly dropped an envelope containing his hard-earned 3,360 yuan (487 US dollars) pay packet on his way back home, with three months' salary seemingly disappearing into thin air.

Zhao Ping working at a local restaurant in Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province/ Qilu Evening News Photo

On learning of the man's plight, Zhao Ping, who works at a restaurant frequented by Cheng, immediately posted on her WeChat account a notice asking for help for the impoverished old man to recoup his lost wages.

Zhao Ping posts a notice on her WeChat account/ Qilu Evening News Photo‍

“The money is all this childless old man can rely on to have a happy Spring Festival, please give it back upon finding the envelope,” the notice read, leaving detailed information including the sum of money lost as well as Zhao’s contact number.

The case received wide attention after the notice was extensively shared by locals, and Zhao’s phone was soon bombarded with more than one hundred calls made by people all over the country and overseas, all of whom were asking how they could help.

Zhao Ping received over one hundred phone calls since her notice was posted/ Qilu Evening News Photo

“There was even a phone call from Britain,” said Zhao Ping in sheer surprise.

Several hours after the notice was posted, a man surnamed Liu reached out to Cheng, and passed him the money that he claimed to have unexpectedly found somewhere.

On the envelope were words identical to those on his missing pay packet, including Cheng’s name and the amount of money inside. However, Cheng was not going to fall for this well-intentioned white lie.

“The characters on my previous envelope were written in ball-point pen, while on this one they were written with a marker pen,” noted Cheng.

Qilu Evening News Photo

Having been found out, Liu later grudgingly revealed to local reporters that the money was in fact pitched in by himself along with several friends, who sought to help the old man overcome the ordeal of losing his money.

Apart from the 3,360 yuan "returned" to Cheng by Liu, the kind stranger said two of his friends had also contributed 600 yuan (87 US dollars) each, so that Cheng could have an extra special Spring Festival.

Still unable to find his original envelope, Cheng said he was nevertheless greatly moved by the benevolent strangers.

“There are so many good people in the world,” said Cheng, brimming with heartfelt gratitude.