Taxi Cab Confessions

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Inodlink’s Melvin Durai pays tribute to the last honest profession: The cab driver. What you say?!?

Perhaps all your encounters with cabdrivers have been sour. They donÂŽt stop for you, and if they do, the only place they seem interested in taking you is to the cleaners.

But before you pass judgment on the millions of cabbies in the world, you need to realize that some of them are so honest, theyÂŽll return almost anything left in their cabs, even Harry Potter books.

But wait…

Glenn Sher, a Long Island, NY, cabby, returned a womanÂŽs purse containing $13,300. ThatÂŽs a lot of money, almost enough to take Paris Hilton on a date.

“I could have used the money to pay bills or whatever,” Sher told The New York Post. “But it wasnÂŽt mine. I canÂŽt take whatÂŽs not mine.” The mayor of New York was truly impressed. “ThatÂŽs amazing,” he said. “I didnÂŽt realize we had a cabdriver who spoke English.”

Another New York cabby, Benjamin Adjepong, was commended by the Taxi and Limousine Commission for returning a bag containing $7,000. “It makes me feel good, and my wife is so excited,” he told WABC TV. Now thatÂŽs a good wife — excited about her husbandÂŽs honesty, not even thinking about the number of shoes she could have bought.

Cabbies in other countries have been just as honorable. Ashraf Qureshi, a Pakistani immigrant in Australia, drove a tourist around for three weeks, even let the man make long distance calls on his phone and eat meals in his apartment — allowed him to do everything but sleep with his wife.

The man paid Qureshi $50,000 for various expenses, according to an Ananova.com report. But after the cabby deposited the money in his bank account, he began to feel guilty about accepting so much and returned $40,000 to the man. “It was all getting too much for me,” Qureshi said. ItÂŽs a good thing heÂŽs a taxi driver, because with integrity like that, he could never be a corporate executive.

I am personally undecided on cab drivers. While traveling Jordan I hired a cab driver, who although nice at first, wanted to share a hotel room with me on the first night. Maybe if I’d known him longer. He also began to cry when I didn’t tip him at the same time I paid him for the three days. I tried to explain he’d be getting a big tip when he dropped me off at the airport, but it didn’t seem to register. That’s my taxi cab confession.

4 thoughts on “Taxi Cab Confessions”

  1. Interesting. My experience was always good with taxidrivers in India. Here‘s sth that I wrote a couple of weeks of back about cabdrivers.

  2. I love talking to NYC cabbies. For some embarassing reason especially when I’m drunk and its 4am.

    I remember one time, 6 sake bottles deep into a night, when I sat down and had an hour long conversation with a Pakistani cabbie about Zia-ul-Haq, the Pakistani dictator/general…

    Very odd, but always memorable.

    My only other intense cabbie experience was when I when I was on the 3rd floor balcony of my apt, and lo and behold, I spot some hobo trying to break into a cab right below me, using some sort of hanger or tire iron. For some reason I decided to pick up a potted plant and chuck it at him, and was very surprised when I managed to hit the guy on the back! 😛 Very satisfying experience, especially when I saw the desi cabbie come running around the corner at the noise and start chasing after the fleeing hobo.

    I talked to the cabbie from my balcony and he even offered me $20 for my trouble.

  3. this is my taxi confession…I’m a reverse racist…

    …I take at least 2 cabs a day, and prefer having an Indian/Pakistani driver…perhaps it’s the instant bond of having roots in the same region…hell, I don’t know…

    Perhaps my unjust generalization stems from a fist-fight I had with an African-American cab driver outside my office building in front of 1 person who works for me, and one person I work for…

    He took a wrong turn, made me late for a meeting, didn’t help me with my suitcase, and I gave him $6 on a 5.70 fare that normally takes $4.10…

    He got pissed about the shabby tip, and started cursing at me…I told him that he didn’t do anything to earn a tip, and I took my suitcase out of the trunk…he kept cursing, so I left his trunk open, as well as my door…I walked towards my building, and when I turned around to tell him off – I saw him running at me, ready to hit me…

    He kicked my bag, and I ducked when he swung…I tackled him into the wall in front of my building, hitting some poor girl who only wanted to enjoy her morning smoke…after we both fell, I hit him once and he got up and ran back to his car, driving off…

    Not sure if it was because of the fury of Ank G, or if it was that the doorman from my building ran out along with my boss, who was walking into work when this happened…

    my experience with my homies?…my cell phone returned to my building, my friend Zoryana (Ukranian girl) whose wallet was returned to the restaurant we were eating (AFTER the meal we had- the cabbie saw it 90 minutes later)deducted rates when a wrong turn was their fault, politeness more times than not, semi-pleasant conversations…etc, etc…

    I’ve had some crappy ones too, but, overall I would rate South Asian cabbies above the norm…

    hell, occasionally you’ll even get the cabbie who was a former engineer/dentist/rocket scientist in India/Pakistan, and now driving a cab…it gives you a humbling dose of reality…