House-keeping staff member Shafinah Ahmad, 24, was cleaning a hotel room when she saw a briefcase with several bank notes sticking out from its side.
Though the bag was shut, she suspected it contained a lot of cash and she panicked.
“Although I was alone in the room, I felt scared to even look at what was inside the bag,” she said, adding that she was stunned when she learnt later that the briefcase carried RM11,000 in cash.
Shafinah said she quickly took the bag, found in a locker when she was cleaning the room on Saturday, to the management's office.
In the meantime, a businessman in his 50s, was travelling back to Kelantan after a stay at the Malacca Holiday Inn for a business trip to the city.
Halfway through the journey, he received a call from the hotel, telling him to turn back to Malacca over an urgent matter.
Holiday Inn Malacca marketing manager Eric Ong said the guest, who did not realise he had left his cash-filled briefcase at the hotel, returned about two hours after he checked out.
“He was surprised and was delighted to have the bag and money returned intact,” said Ong, who had contacted the businessman based on the guest list.
The guest, who declined to be named, said he totally forgot the briefcase when he lugged out all his other baggage upon leaving the hotel.
“I was not sure if I had left anything behind and only realised my carelessness when the hotel called,” he told The Star yesterday.
State Education, Science, Technology, Green Technology and Innovations committee chairman Datuk Md Yunos Hussin, when contacted by the paper, commended the staff of the Holiday Inn Malacca for their honesty and swift action in returning the briefcase to the rightful owner.
“Not many would return back such a substantial sum,” he said, adding he will propose to the state executive council to present an appropriate reward for Shafinah.
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