Enlarge image
Liberia's President George Weah with the honest finder Emmanuel Tuloe: an educational grant and two motorcycles
Photo: PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE / EPA
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world.
According to the World Bank, almost 45 percent of the population live on 1.90 US dollars or less per day.
That is the equivalent of about 1.60 euros.
That much has to be said in advance.
Because: A 19-year-old found 50,000 US dollars, around 43,000 euros, in the north-eastern Nimba region of the West African country.
And returned the money.
Emmanuel Tuloe has now been named a national hero for his honesty.
Tuloe struggled as a motorcycle taxi driver and had discovered the money on the street, as the newspaper "Liberian Observer" reports.
A businesswoman had lost the cash on the side of a country road, wrapped in a plastic bag.
The woman offered a finder's reward on the radio, whereupon Tuloe contacted her.
During a ceremony in the capital Monrovia on Monday, President George Weah praised Tuloe's "exceptional sense of morality and good citizenship."
He awarded the youth the highest order in Liberia, plus an educational grant, two motorcycles and a cash bonus.
Tuloe, whose father died early, had to drop out of the seventh grade for lack of money.
kha / dpa
