Bhubaneswar, April 25: Narayan Jena, 42, a labourer, today played a Good Samaritan to an elderly woman who but for his help would have lost a sizeable amount of cash and gold ornaments.

Fending off the challenge of a goon, he retuned Rs 50,000 cash and gold-chains worth Rs 2 lakh which the woman had dropped on a road by mistake. Jena said: “I got the money on the Ekamra Kanan Road near CRPF Square while going to the labourer market in search of work. I was on my cycle and suddenly saw a wallet on the road. I picked it up.”

However, the story did not end there. Jena waited for a while thinking what to do with the new-found wallet.

All of a sudden, a youth in his 30s approached Jena on a motorcycle and asked him to give the wallet. The youth claimed that the wallet belonged to him.

Jena became suspicious of his attitude and asked him to go along with him to the police station and only then he would return the wallet. The youth got angry and had a fisticuff with him. As they quarrelled, some local shopkeepers gathered at the spot and wanted to know the issue.

As the situation soon went out of control, one of the shopkeepers informed the local police about the incident. In no time, two police vans reached the spot.

On the arrival of police, the youth slipped from the spot sensing trouble. The cops took Jena along with him.

The police recovered a mobile phone, Rs 50,000 cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 2 lakh from the wallet.

While investigating the matter, the police came to know that the wallet belonged to Swarnaprabha Mishra, wife of a retired police officer.

Swarnaprabha said: “Last night, I withdrew the money from the ATM. I needed the money as some repair work was going on in my house at N-2 in IRC Village. This morning, while I was going to a clinic to measure my blood sugar level, my purse slipped from the car.”

“I can not express my gratitude to the man. He is a pious man. God has given me back the money as I did something good in life,” she said.

In a sense of gratitude, Swarnaprabha gave Jena Rs 1,000.

Jena, however, said: “I am a poor labourer. But, I want to lead a life full of virtues. I don’t want to take other’s money. I have a son and I can sustain with whatever I am earning.”