A 13-year-old boy found 158,000 yuan (US$22,000) on the street and took the money to the police rather than keeping it for his family even though they were in a precarious financial position.
The family of Yang Xuan from Jiangsu province in eastern China has struggled to make ends meet since the boy’s father was hospitalised after a cerebral haemorrhage.
On December 3, Yang was walking home with his mother, Zhu Xiaorong, when he noticed a white bag lying next to a stone tablet. He opened it out of curiosity.
“I did not expect there to be such a large sum of money inside the bag,” he told Jiangsu TV.
Despite his surprise, Yang tried to catch the owner, who had just left on a bicycle, but the man was cycling away too fast, and Yang could not catch up.
Yang told his mother: “The owner must be distraught, and he probably needs the money to save a life, like my father. Let’s call the police.”
A police officer quickly arrived at the scene, and Yang and his mother followed the officer to the police station. They then tracked down the bag’s owner with help from the police.
Yang’s school learned of the good deed and held a ceremony to honour him, with a police officer saluting Yang.
The selflessness was particularly notable because the family needed the money, with the television report showing clips of Yang’s father lying on a sick bed, unable to move on his own.
Despite those circumstances, Yang did not consider keeping the money for his family. On the contrary, he made a considerable effort to return it to the owner as soon as possible.
The story of kind-hearted Yang touched many people in China, with one online observer calling him “a very good boy”.
Another said: “His parents have done an excellent job of raising him.”
A third commented: “A kind heart is more precious than money.”
Stories about do-gooding honest children regularly touch hearts in China.
In April, a teenage boy in northwestern China was hailed as a hero after he picked up a lost three-year-old girl and carried her to a police station.
In July last year, two pupils in eastern China won plaudits after they insisted on handing in 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) to the local police that they had found inside a wallet someone had forgotten on a shared bike.