Mumbai: What was supposed to be a standard Rs 156 auto ride through Mumbai turned into a viral lesson in human integrity when a frantic entrepreneur accidentally transferred Rs 15,682 to his driver via Google Pay.
The entrepreneur had an early-morning business meeting to rush to. Expecting the worst after an already disastrous corporate pitch, the commuter stepped back onto the pavement to find the driver still waiting at the drop-off spot, eager to return every single rupee of the accidental windfall.
Even more surprising was that the driver refused to accept the original fare, saying he did not want to pile on the commuter’s already stressful day.
An international client, in the city for one day, wanted to meet at 7 am. I was late, fumbling with GPay outside the building. The ride cost Rs 156. I typed Rs 15,682, hit pay, and ran upstairs,” the commuter, Shubman Gune, wrote on LinkedIn.
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Gune described the scheduled meeting as “ugly,” as the meeting went “nowhere.”
“I came down with it all over my face, sure I’d wasted the only morning I’d get. I still had no idea I was Rs 15,526 lighter,” Gune continued. The auto driver, Atlaf, was parked exactly where he had dropped Gune, waiting for him. “He walked over and told me I’d paid him too much, then sent the whole Rs 15,682 back. Not the extra. All of it,” Gune wrote, expressing his surprise at the gesture.
Even though he pushed Atlaf to keep the original fare, the driver refused. “He could see the kind of morning I was having,” Gune wrote, adding that the auto driver said, “It’s the start of the day for both of us, sir.”
Gune ended up getting the client to work with him. However, the only thing he thought after receiving the news was the “7 am footpath.” “The moment the news landed, my mind went straight back to that 7 am footpath,” he said.
“To the man who watched me have my worst morning and decided his job was to make it better. I sent him Rs 500. The fare he wouldn’t take, and a token of thanks I couldn’t price,” Gune said. “Atlaf never asked me for a thing.”
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