Mr. Butt, who immigrated to New York from Pakistan eight years ago, said he accepted the unusual fare at Kennedy because he saw the opportunity to make much more than the usual $175 for a grueling 12-hour day driving his cab.

"Going there, I was so happy," he said. "Two thousand dollars for two days."

But the trip soon became a strange one, when Mr. Butt, his fare and a friend whom the cab driver had asked to come along arrived in Troy, just north of Detroit, where Mr. Kollal said he would find his ex-wife and his money.

The cab driver first took Mr. Kollal to a house where a 35-year-old man answered the door, saying he knew nothing of a checkbook, Mr. Kollal or Mr. Kollal's ex-wife. The Troy police were then called, and after a quick search, Mr. Kollal's former wife was found at a house a few blocks away.

But she told the police that she had been divorced from Mr. Kollal for more than two years and was not pleased that he had shown up on her doorstep.

Officer Robert Carter quoted the man's ex-wife, who was not identified, as saying angrily: "Yes, I do have his checkbook. I don't want to talk to him. Give him his checkbook."