Chinese Dad Returns Lost Wallet, Pays for Son’s $60K Bone Marrow Transplant With Unusual Reward

Tang Shaolong, a farmer from Jining, was caught in a massive financial crisis when his son, Tang Yixuan, who he had taken to a hospital in Shandong, Jinan, needed to undergo an operation as a treatment for the blood condition hemophagocytic syndrome.

Tang was a positive match for his son, but unfortunately, the family did not have 400,000 yuan ($60,000) to cover the operation cost, according to Beijing Youth Daily on Tuesday, South China Morning Post reported.

To add even more to the dilemma, Tang and his family already paid 200,000 yuan ($29,000) for the care at the hospital, and 120,000 yuan ($17,000) of that money was borrowed from family relatives.

But one day, as Tang left the hospital to buy food for his son, he found a wallet on the road. Upon checking, he found that the wallet contained 20,000 yuan ($2,900) in cash as well as bank cards, a business card, and a driving license.

At first, Tang felt glad to have found the money as his family badly needed it for his son’s operation, but later thought otherwise.

“To be honest, seeing so much money, I felt very glad. I guessed it was God, knowing I was anxious about money to save my kid’s life [and] that might be a help to me,” he said. “But on second thoughts, I guessed that because the money was found near a hospital it must be life-saving cash for someone else.”

He then returned the wallet and all of its content to its owner, Ding Yilong, a local vegetable grower. Ding wanted to give Tang a reward, but he graciously declined the kind gesture.

“If it was my salary for my hard work, I would take it,” he said. “But I just picked up other people’s belongings and returned it. I could not accept it.”

Both Ding and Tang kept in touch on social media, but the former later learned the latter’s situation and how he is looking for help in funding his son’s medical procedure. Luckily, Ding’s business, though it is still a start-up and not yet cash-rich, had more than enough turnips in stock to be able to help Tang with his financial troubles.

“I decided to donate the turnips to Tang Shaolong, and we can sell them together to raise money for the boy,” Ding told reporters.

The story of these two men appeared in the Shandong news paper Qilu Evening News on Sunday, and by Tuesday, the 200 tons of turnips had already been sold out. They were able to rake in 500,000 yuan ($75,000), which is more than enough to cover the bone marrow transplant.

Tang and his son will undergo the bone marrow transplant in about a month as the hospital is still preparing the sterile ward where the father and son would stay.

Images via SCMP