New York hero

Sometimes I find my cynicism is uncalled for and I'm humbled.

Never mind diamonds- a New York cabbie was a Texas girl's best friend. The driver returned 31 diamond rings he found in his cab after dropping off the passenger, who had left him with a 30-cent tip on a $10.70 fare.

"All my life, I tried to be honest," said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. "Today is no different."

But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: "I'm proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest."

What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back.

Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the woman's suitcase when Chowdhury popped the trunk open for them.

Chowdhury first drove to the building where he had dropped off the woman. But he had no idea in which of the many apartments she might be and didn't want to cause a disruption by knocking on doors.

He took the suitcase to the Manhattan headquarters of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group to which he belongs. He and the alliance president looked inside and found two display cases with 31 diamond rings inside.

"I saw flashing, and I said, 'Oh my God! Diamonds!'" Chowdhury recalled. "I was shocked. I was trembling."

They also found a small luggage tag with a Texas telephone number they called - the home of the woman's mother in Dallas. Meanwhile, she called the number, too.

The woman, who said she was a jeweler, got back the gems on Monday when she arrived at the alliance office around midnight - incredulous at her luck. She offered Chowdhury a reward - a check for $100.

"I cannot take a penny for being honest," he said, but he reluctantly accepted the money to cover the fares he lost while trying to track her down.

He said it never occurred to him to keep the diamonds.

Ok, I'm not buying he didn't think about keeping the diamonds, most of us would have. But he could have claimed he had returned them and not done so. Thus he's proven he's an honest man.

OMG! He's a Bangladeshi? Aren't those guys sort of dark? Why didn't he get arrested as a terrorist?

So much for Homeland Security.

Now this is why the MSM often disappoints me, to say the least. Here's a headline.

Cabbie returns diamond rings to tightfisted tipper

The article goes on to say he had only received a 30¢ tip. But if you investigate a little further you find this.

What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back.

Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the woman's suitcase when Chowdhury popped the trunk open for them.

Uh, pardon me s'il vous plaît, but asking $9 back on a $20 fare is hardly being tightfisted or cheap. That's one hell of a handsome tip.

Don't ya love the ostentatious way I spell French words? Truth is, I'm just trying to be accurate in using their language.

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