A 37-year-old maintenance employee of a mall in Rosales town in Pangasinan has been commended for returning a bag containing PHP153,000 cash.

Dexter Madriaga said he recovered the bag inside the men’s fitting room containing a car key, wallet with automated machine cards, cellphone, and cash on May 1 while he was cleaning the area.

“I wasn’t tempted at all although I was really in need of money at that time because it did not come from me),” he said in Filipino during an interview on Thursday.

After discovering the bag left behind by the customer, Madriaga immediately brought it to the security personnel’s office which immediately contacted its owner.

Madriaga’s honesty was rewarded when the owner of the bag later on gave him some amount of cash.

“I was not after the reward and the award but it was still somehow a blessing because I really didn’t have money at that time,” he said.

He encouraged his fellow workers to strive and work hard with dignity and honesty.

Madriaga, who has been working at SM City Rosales for four years now, was one of the awardees during the Joint Tactical Inspection general assembly of all SM Malls in Pangasinan on June 9. (PNA)