PHOTO: Man given house and 4 jobs after returning GH?2,500 abandoned in a taxi

The jobless young man who badly needed GH?800 to pay rent or face ejection but was honest enough to return a cash of GH?2,500 abandoned in a taxi to its owner, is to become a home owner.

Collins Arhin, 35, is to own a three-bedroom self-contained house on the plot of land gifted him by estates company, Real Plan Estates, and has made the initial deposit for construction works to start.

The deposit of GH?5,000 came from the many cash gifts that flowed his way following his courageous and kind act which saw his best friends write him off as a fool destined to live as a wretch.

At the last count however, Collins Arhin had bagged far in excess of GH?10,000 in cash, more than four-fold what his friends had considered God’s salvation for the fix he found himself in and which they would rather he had stolen.

The gifts have come mainly from listeners of Accra based Radio Gold 90.5FM, which reviewed The Insight newspaper’s publication of Arhin’s uncommon honesty.

But the latest in Arhin’s chain of gifts has brought him a huge dilemma too – four financial institutions have made him offers to employ him and he is confused which of them to pick.

He told the Daily Graphic: “You know these are matters of money and I want to be careful I don’t fall into temptation. They all say that they can trust me with clients’ money. I am praying over it so I’ll be directed which one to choose. I have also asked my pastor, Pastor Enoch Aminu of the Pure Fire Miracles Church and the entire church to help me pray about it.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Real Plan Estates, Mr. Charles Nunoo, whose company gave the land and 20 bags of cement to Arhin in celebration of his honesty, told the Daily Graphic that ordinarily the type of house being built for Arhin could cost about GH?80,000, however, “we are offering it to him at a very low price. He is happy with it and we also offered him very flexible instalment terms.”

“I tuned in to Radio Gold that particular day when they read his story and I was touched by his story. I felt that out of a thousand Ghanaians you would have just one person to do such a thing, so I was inspired by what he did and decided to be of help to him. And also in our sort of business too, real estates particularly, there are a lot of tricksters and all that, people don’t even trust us again but my company stands for the position he took and I decided to be of help.”

Arhin was on his way to take a loan of GH?800 from a friend to settle his outstanding rent when on alighting from the taxi he had travelled in, he realised a co-passenger had left behind a polythene bag containing GH?2,500.

He took the money to a radio station and following a couple of announcements, the owner, a lady who said she had taken the money as a loan from the Agricultural Development Bank to boost her failing trade, showed up. To show her gratitude, she offered Arhin GH?100 as her ‘thank you’ but Arhin gently refused, insisting her business needed all that money.

When he arrived at the friend’s house to collect the GH?800 loan, his friend turned him away, condemning his action and his apparent lack of interest in his own wellbeing.