A Syrian refugee has been praised for handing in a significant amount of money to German police which he found in his wardrobe, the Independent reports.
Muhannad M found €150,000 shortly after moving into his new flat in Minden, north Rhine-Westphalia, police reported.
Mr Muhannad, 25, was furnishing his flat after receiving charitable contributions, and the wardrobe was included among the donations.
While he was cleaning it, he discovered a hidden compartment where two sheets of wood had been screwed together.
Inside the compartment he found savings books that were worth €100,000, plus €50,000 in cash.
“They were all new €500 notes. I thought it was fake money,” he told German national newspaper Bild.
He looked online for clues as to how to tell if the notes were fake, and came to the conclusion that they were in fact real.
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He informed migration authorities who then told the police, explaining that Islam prohibited him from keeping the money for himself.
“Allah would never allow me to finance my own interests with someone else’s wealth,” he said.
Police are now trying to track down whoever put the money in the wardrobe.
“This young man has acted in an exemplary way and deserves great respect,” a police spokesperson said.
“It sometimes happens that smaller amounts of money are handed in. But this kind of money is the absolute exception.”
Mr Muhannad arrived in Germany in October 2015. The rest of his family are still in war-torn Syria.
He will receive a finder’s fee of three percent of the value of the money.
