Homeless Couple In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Finds Duffel Bag With $10,000 In Cash, Turns It Over To Police

For those of us without Swiss bank accounts, $10,000 is a lot of money. For Rejaniel Santos and Sandra Domingues, a homeless couple who spend nights under an overpass in Sao Paulo, Brazil, $10,000 is a life-altering amount of money.

Yet when the duo stumbled across a duffel bag containing 20,000 Brazilian Reais ($9,831) at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Folha de S.Paulo reports they decided to do the right thing and turn it over to police.

Santos found the bag near a bus station when he and his wife went to investigate why a nearby shop's fire alarm had gone off. Though they could desperately use the funds, they never considered taking the money. "I learned from my mother to never take anything that belongs to others," he told TV Globo.

He added that, while he's lost touch with his family recently, he hopes his mother sees him on TV. That way, "she'll know that her son is still one of the honest people in the world," Santos told Folha de S.Paulo.

The couple typically earn around $7.50 each day collecting and recycling trash, according to EFE News.

Police identified the money's proper owner using receipts in the bag, and returned it to the Japanese restaurant from which it was determined the money had been stolen last week, EFE News reports.

The couple owns just mattress, two blankets and a bag with clothes. The local Japanese restaurant will reward the heroic couple, according to Globo.com.