Every penny matters, especially during these financially challenging times, and finding a bag full of money could probably look like God’s answer to one’s prayer. That is not the case for Officer in Charge Reynaldo Quiros, a 47-year-old security officer who hails from Tarlac City in the Philippines.
He recently returned a bag with passports and 35,000 Philippine pesos that he found near the entrance gate of the Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies (AIIAS) campus on the evening of August 8, 2022, in Silang, Cavite, Philippines.
Quiros was headed to do his regular rounds that night when he noticed a bag lying unattended near the AIIAS gate. Out of curiosity, he looked closely at the bag.
“I saw a bag outside the AIIAS gate,” Quiros said in a phone interview. “I went to get it and check what was inside. The bag had several passports in it and cash worth 35,000 Philippine pesos, or about 623 U.S. dollars. I immediately reported the incident to our Security Department and resolved to return the money to its owner promptly.”
The following day, Quiros and AIIAS security personnel contacted the bag’s owner and returned it with everything intact. The owners were thankful to have the documents and the money returned. They said they were grateful that the money ended up in the hands of Quiros, who was moved to do the right thing and return it to its rightful owners.
Quiros works for the Leian Line Security Agency, currently the campus’s security service provider. Quiros has served in the AIIAS Security Department for more than 24 years. He shared that he’s had several experiences in the past where he found unattended items, but this is by far the most significant amount he has come across.
When asked about keeping the money for himself, he explained, “I also have needs, especially with our financial challenges, but that does not give us the reason to do bad things to others. I want my children to grow up with integrity, honesty, and fear in God. I want to set a good example for them.”
During the school’s corporate worship on August 15, AIIAS president Ginger Ketting-Weller, together with administrators and staff of the campus, acknowledged Quiros for his good deed.
The original version of this story was posted on the Southern Asia-Pacific Division news site.
