Mama mia! It’s all hugs and wais as “Aunty Porn” returns a ‘million’ to Italian

Thai Rath reported on yet another story showcasing the honesty of Thai people and their desire to promote tourism to the kingdom. 

They screamed in their opening paragraphs that “Aunty Porn” – a food seller in Chumpon – had returned a million baht to an Italian tourist. 

In reality the black bag she found in her restaurant by the train station in the southern Thai city contained euros and dollars amounting to 20,000 baht. But there was a Thai bank book with a deposit in excess of a million. 

A Thai Rath reporter just happened to be at the police station around 8 pm last night when Siriporn Morkphichai, 71, came in with the bag to report her finding.

The bag contained lots of things beside the bank book and money – there were many credit cards and a passport in the name of an Italian man called Alessio Trevisan, aged 67. 

In next to no time the Italian came into the station – he was all panicky and his face was pale.

That was until he saw “Aunty Porn” and his missing bag.

“How wonderful are the Thai people to tourists,” he said as the joy overwhelmed him. 

He hugged Aunty Porn who responded with a wai and pictures were taken for posterity and the police record. 

After he checked that everything was still in the bag – it was – he gave her a reward of 1,000 baht and went on his merry way – another more than satisfied customer to Thailand.

Aunty told Thai Rath that she runs the the “Raan Paa Porn” (Aunty Porn’s Shop) by the station. She sells a la carte dishes. 

Earlier in the day a foreigner and three friends had come into her establishment to eat. After they paid and left she found the bag by an archway in the restaurant.

“I thought it was a bomb at first and I dared not touch it,” she said. But after her daughter was called they looked inside and found the various contents. Her daughter tried to locate the owner at the station but to no avail. 

“I hung onto the bag for three hours until closing time hoping he would return,” said Aunty Porn before she decided to take it to the police because:

“I was concerned about the image of us Thais in the eyes of tourists”. 

The latest example of Thai honesty follows a mini mart employee who returned 91,000 baht to a forgetful tourist earlier in the week. 

Thai Visa / Thai Rath

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