Japanese visitor gets bag full of cash back from Bangkok cab

BANGKOK – A Bangkok taxi driver says he didn't know what was in the green backpack a Japanese customer left behind in the trunk of his cab, but he knew what he had to do — hand it over to police.

When he did, Thanakrit Hengniran learned that inside were 16 fancy T-shirts, a Macintosh computer and 800,000 yen ($7,800) in cash.

Thanakrit said he had no regrets, hoping that his honesty gave visiting Japanese businessman Keishi Kobayashi a good feeling about Thailand and its people. For his good deed, he received a 5,000 baht ($140) reward on Thursday from Kobayashi.

Already scrambling to make ends meet, Bangkok taxi drivers are facing increasing competition from motorbikes and services such as Uber.