Many happy returns, Part II.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(taxi driver returns woman's lost luggage)

On February 5, just a few days after the above incident, but on the opposite coast, New York cab driver Osman Chowdhury, who is a native of Bangladesh, picked up a woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. The passenger gave Mr. Chowdhury a Jack Bennyish 30-cent tip on a $10.70 fare, but the cabbie evidently did not hold that against the woman, as we shall see.

About three hours later, Chowdhury opened the trunk for three other passengers to retrieve their luggage, and they discovered a suitcase that was not theirs.

Chowdhury drove to the building where he had dropped off the woman, but he did not see her and he had no idea into which apartment she might have gone. Since it was past 10 p.m., he did not want to disturb the residents by ringing on multiple door buzzers.

The cabbie took the suitcase to the Manhattan headquarters of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group to which he belongs. Together with the organization's president, he looked inside and found two display cases with 31 diamond rings.

"I saw flashing, and I ...