A New Haven, Conn. rabbi bought a desk for $150 from Craiglist, and got a lot more television station WTNH reported Sunday, and updated Monday.
"The desk did not fit into this office by a fraction of an inch," Rabbi Noah Muroff told WTNH. "Behind the drawers there is this plastic bag, like a shopping. In the bag, I could already see through the bag, it looks like a one hundred dollar bill. We open it up and it's full of cash. And we counted up and there's $98,000 (of) cash sitting in the bag. Right away my wife and I sort of looked at each other and said we can't keep this money. I saw there was a bag back there and through the bag I saw one 100 dollar bill and I'(m), like, Oh my gosh there's money in there. And I picked it up and this is pretty heavy. And I brought it over to the table and sort of counted it up and was like oh my gosh. Muroff and his wife disassembled the desk just to get the furniture into their residence since it did not fit through the front door.
Muroff, and his wife then immediately got in touch with the owner of the desk to inquire about how they could return the money.
The owner was quite surprised after learning her inheritance was in the desk, since she did not remember where she put it.
"Oh my gosh, because I... oh my God," the original owner told WTNH.
Muroff and his wife then returned the money with his four children to the woman the day after finding the money.
"They (my children) should learn from this - about the attribute of honesty and doing what is right," Muroff told The Hartford Courant. "The Jewish law requires one, in general, to return found objects to the rightful owner. Throughout Jewish law, tremendous concern is shown for the feelings of other people."
