KLUANG: It was 80-year-old Choo Liang Sin’s first time taking an interstate bus ride alone from Seremban to Kluang, and whatever could go wrong did go wrong.

       In his haste to get off the bus, he left behind his wallet containing S$1,000 (RM3,200) and RM600.

       Things got worse – he then got off at the wrong stop.

       The elderly man, who lives in Singapore, was without a mobile phone when the series of unfortunate events struck on May 27.

       However, his story was made right by not just one, but two good Samaritans.

       Someone named “Yusof”, who sat on the row next to Choo on the bus, saw the wallet and decided to call up the bus company in the hopes of returning it to the rightful owner.

       Choo’s niece Choo Chau Peng, 56, said the bus company managed to contact them about an hour later via a telephone number that was keyed in during the purchase of the ticket.

       Chau Peng said her cousin, who bought their uncle’s bus ticket, had given details of his own contact number during the online ticket purchase.

       “It was a moment of panic when I found out my uncle left his wallet behind and had got down at Sri Lalang instead of Taman Intan where I was supposed to pick him up.

       “I could not imagine him being alone in an unfamiliar place without any means of contacting us,” she told The Star yesterday.

       Chau Peng rushed to the Kluang bus terminal to collect the wallet from Yusof before making her way to Sri Lalang, about 10km away, to look for her uncle.

       “While on the way there, I got a call from my sister informing me that our uncle had safely returned home after hitching a ride from another kind-hearted stranger,” she said.

       Later, her uncle related to them on how he was scared and hungry as he had no money with him and no way of contacting them.

       “We are glad and grateful that everything turned out well in the end with the help of kind-hearted Malaysians who are willing to go the extra mile to help others,” she said.

       Choo, touched by Yusof’s honesty and efforts to return his wallet, asked for a meet-up the next day to thank him in person.

       “Upon seeing Yusof, my uncle gave him a big hug and began tearing up.

       “He gave Yusof an ang pow to thank him, but he refused to accept it. The young man finally relented after my uncle insisted that it was meant as a coffee treat,” said Chau Peng.

       “I also sent a text message to Yusof on behalf of my uncle, who could not stop praising him for his kind deed and wished him well in life.”

       Throughout their brief meeting, Chau Peng said Yusof was polite and kept smiling while comforting her uncle who was in tears.

       She said her uncle came to Malaysia early last month to visit relatives in Johor and Selangor.

       He returned safely to his home in Singapore on Thursday.

       Her uncle’s heart-warming experience, the details of which were posted on Facebook by Chau Peng, has since been widely shared on social media with people very much touched by it.