In an amazing tale of honesty amid the furor of the credit crunch, workers at a German steel plant have this week owned up to finding 100,000 euros ($128,500) in a safe that was sent to be scrapped.
However, despite the obvious temptation to keep the money for themselves, the scrap workers at the plant near Berlin did the honorable thing and returned the full amount to its owner.
What makes their actions even more commendable is that the cash belonged to one of Germany’s largest financial service providers, Postbank.
With attitudes towards the banking industry at a low ebb as the global economy deals with the full force of the economic downturn, this leniency towards such an active member of the financial sector by members of the public is almost surprising.
According to reports, the €100,000 mistakenly made its way to the scrap yard after a Postbank employee failed to empty out the cash before sending the surplus safe to be scrapped.
Spokesperson for Postbank Ralf Palm acknowledged that the steel workers’ lucky find was down to "the carelessness of an employee when a branch office moved in December."
They have failed to comment further on the incident and it is not yet clear whether the workers will receive any reward for their good deed.
