Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Headlines about multi-million dollar corruption often dance across the front pages of Iranian newspapers. There is currently hot news about Iran's biggest bank fraud, allegedly by people with ties to the government.

But all of a sudden a piece of positive news shined in Iran and outside country: A street sweeper named Ahmad Rabani from Bojnourd, 700km from Tehran, found 1 billion Toman (about $570,000 US dollars) and returned it to the owner.

As thanks, he received a 200,000 Toman ($120 US dollars) reward.

Iranian blogger Unirani praises the street sweeper and calls his actions a lesson for Islamic Republic officials involved with corruption. The blogger writes [fa]:

… a man from the working class and a member of the municipality found 1 billion Toman in a bag and returned it to its owner. We realise the worthiness of his actions when we learn he lived in poverty because of dire economic situation in country. Naturally he could have kept the money, resigned from his job, and become one of these millionaires. But he did not do it. Let that be a lesson to those thieves and corrupt people who steal everything in the country and with their impure policies that create endless economic difficulties.

Another blogger, Pesarirouni writes about this story and says [fa]:

Dignity still exists… in a time when a brother has no mercy for a brother… I was born in a working class family and I can sympathise with all the difficulties these people face… I praise his dignity, and think he should get a medal of honor for his actions.

Del2del writes [fa] that Rabani must have overcome big temptations to return the money, since he estimates the amount of money would equal 166 years of a street sweeper's salary.