Heavens would punish me if I took money

Some of her friends have called her stupid for "throwing" away more than $5,000 just like that, but honesty was more important to Madam Zeng Yanqiu.

The 47-year-old, who works as a hotel housekeeper, found five 4-D tickets, two of which had winning numbers. But she did not claim the money.

Madam Zeng was walking near Block 108, Tampines Street 11, five minutes from her home on Saturday evening when she found the tickets.

That night, her daughter, 21, reminded her to check the results of the draw.

"I checked on my phone and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me - out of five tickets, two of them had winning numbers," Madam Zeng, a study mama who is returning to China in June, told The New Paper in Mandarin.

She then took the tickets to the police station and made a report.

"The owner of the tickets would have been very worried, more so after realising she had bought winning numbers," she said.

Her motive in lodging the report was to try to get the tickets back to their owner.

"The police officer told me that good things would happen to good people like me," Madam Zeng said bashfully.

Colleagues and friends have been telling her how proud they are of her, with one calling her a "role model".

STUPID?

"Even though some friends have told me I was stupid not to take the money, I never thought of doing that because the heavens would punish me," she said.

"Of course, it's a lot of money - nearly three months' salary for me.

"But claiming it would go against the law as well as my morals."

Her housekeeping work also means that she regularly finds the belongings of hotel guests, such as necklaces, watches and clothes.

"But I always hand them to my boss," Madam Zeng said. "Honesty is the way to go."

This article was published on April 16 in The New Paper.

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