Vinod Mago, who drives a cab for a taxi association in Lynnwood in Washington state, had just started his shift on February 1 when he got a call from his taxi coordinator saying that a passenger had reported missing his wallet.

Mago found the wallet in his cab stuffed with $100 and $50 bills and counted the cash $5,950. The Indian immigrant, who had moved to the US in 1984, was glad that another passenger had not taken the wallet.

"It would have been embarrassing. He would have though I took it." Mago dashed to the taxi association's office at the Sea-Tac International Airport where the owner of the wallet Peter was waiting and gave him the cash.

Mago said he never considered keeping the money "I am a god-fearing person. God is watching everybody every second.

"Everybody has different opinions, different beliefs. I just believe if it is not my money, I don't want it. I just want to live a clean and peaceful life," he said.

In a letter of praise to the cab association, Peter wrote "I wish there were more people in the world like this man," media reports said.

Peter thanked Mago by giving him $100. Mago celebrated by taking his family to dinner at a popular restauarant.

On Monday, a Bangladeshi immigrant returned 31 diamond rings left behind by a passenger in his cab in New York. The passenger gave the taxi driver Osman Chowdhury only a small 30-cent tip but that did not prevent the cabbie from tracking her down and returning the gems.