

A migrant worker who lost 15,000 yuan when he fell off his scooter in Shanghai has received over 22,000 yuan in donations from strangers touched by his hard luck story.

Qin Xiaoliang, who came off his scooter at the intersection of Jianhe and Beiji roads, watched in horror as his savings, which he had been planning to take home to his family for Spring Festival, blew up into the air, only to be snatched up by passersby. Qin reportedly begged those who caught the money to return it, but only two citizens were decent enough human beings to do so, returning a grand total of 700 yuan.

Since his misfortune was widely reported in the Chinese press, Qin has been inundated with donations, he has so far received 14,500 yuan in direct donations, with over 7,000 yuan returned to him by shamefaced Shanghai residents who snatched it up on Monday. It’s a Chunjie Miracle!

Qin says he plans to donate the excess money to charity and has requested people stop donating to him.

“The nice people of the city really surprised me. If I accepted the entire donation the number would have reached tens of thousands,” said Qin, who smiled for the first time yesterday.

“I don’t want to accept any more donations as I have already recovered what I had lost.”

Qin has bought a long-distance bus ticket to his hometown in Anhui for Friday and plans to come back after the Spring Festival with his family to thank the city for its help.

Every silver lining has a cloud however, and Qin’s story was reportedly ideal fodder for unscrupulous scammers, who sent fake text messages asking people to donate money into the bank account of Qin’s ‘wife’.

The messages, traced to a number in southern China’s Guangdong Province, claimed she was Qin’s wife and requested people to make a bank transfer and bail her and her family out, Shanghai television news reported yesterday.

“I have never asked people to transfer money,” Qin said.

“Moreover, I have divorced my wife so the message couldn’t be true,” he said.





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