Do People with Integrity still exist? Well, Emmanuel Tuloe, a 19-year old teen found lost 50,000USD & returned it to the owner!
Local, national, and international media is full of a story of Emmanuel Tuloe, the Liberian 19-year old teen who found a bag of lost 50,000USD (about 185 million Uganda shillings) and returned it to the owner, a business woman called Musu Yancy! According to the reports, which have been covered extensively in Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, BBC, and elsewhere across the globe, Emmanuel Tuloe, a 19-year old boy from a very poor background was a struggling motorcycle taxi-driver when he did the unusual gesture.
Apparently, while most stories make it look like it happened just yesterday, the story is as old as October 2021. But, yeah, it is just yesterday!
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Who is Emmanuel Tuloe?
Stories have it that Emmanuel Tuloe is simply a teenager who is from a very poor background. Remember, more than 44% of Liberia’s now 5 million people live under poverty line (below 1.9USD per day). After his father’s death in a drowning accident, the then young boy went on to live with his aunt. Well, less is said about his mother, but I am sure she is part of the whole story, of who Emmanuel is!
Shortly after living with aunt, at the tender age of 9 years, he had to leave school (I mean drop out of school), and look for living. He took on motorcycle riding for cash to provide for his family.
Apparently, says one YouTuber, the motorcycle wasn’t his; he would lend, ride, pay off the owner, and save some for himself. This is the life the young hustler was living until ‘just yesterday’ when he landed on a plastic bag full of 50,000USD, the money he wholeheartedly took back to the owner!
How did Emmanuel Tuloe Really do it?
Well, he was at his usual work, riding, when he landed on money wrapped in plastic bag. Emmanuel says he then took the money to his aunt for safekeeping, and waited to hear about the owner. Later on that day, stories say, ‘a tearful businesswoman went on the radio to announce that she had lost the money and pleaded for its return’. Emmanuel heard this, went back to his aunt, and in presence of local leaders contacted the radio station and the business woman, and handed over the money.
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What happened to Emmanuel Tuloe after his integrity gesture?
Well, first, not so good! According to Emmanuel, reports the Liberian newspaper, Front Page Africa, many people, especially his fellow motorcycle riders ridiculed him. They called him all sorts of names, all pointing to ‘stupidity and foolishness’. ‘Imagine‘, they must have said, ‘how can a poor fool like you get such a one-time opportunity and waste it? You could have used the money to improve your life, and the life of your family members. You are just a fool!’
You think I am overdoing it? Well, here are his own words:
“Since my decision, when I have a breakdown on the highway and some of my rider friends see me, they don’t help; they say I acted stupid to find and return money. I should let the money help me,”
EMMANUEL TULOE
But not everything was bad. Actually, this act of honesty and integrity has earned a lot of gifts for Emmanuel, and drastically changed his life for better.
Emmanuel Tuloe gets rewarded for returning the lost 50,000USD to the owner!
First, the business woman, Musu Yancy, rewarded the boy with 1,500 USD and material gifts. Secondly, when the story caught up with the nation and the whole world, Liberia’s president, George Weah, asked to meet the boy. And when he did, he rewarded him with cash 10,000USD, 2 new motorcycles, education scholarship to Master’s level, a job position as Liberian Integrity ambassador with monthly salary of 500USD, and called on others to support the young man, not with gifts alone, but things beyond! And, by the way, isn’t meeting the president and shaking hands with him on camera a reward in itself? Lol!
And that wasn’t it all. Emmanuel’s story reached nations, and was picked up and offered study scholarship at Livingstone College in North Carolina.
The young man is now back in school, this time doing secondary education at a prestigious school in the country, and his Livingstone college is ready for him when this is done. BBC reports that young man wanna be accountant, Emmanuel himself is caught up in one video saying he wanna be a doctor, and, yeah, WBTV actually says that the guy wanna study computer science. Who is right? But, does this matter?
Materially, it has surely worked for him. For us, entrepreneurs, cash-flow is more important than a ‘bang’. Considering all the material gifts, the 1,500USD, the 10,000USD, the scholarships, the job and monthly salary of 500USD, and the general prestige or national fame, the young man has returned his 50,000USD and with some profits. With Salary alone, this young man shall make 6,000 dollars a year, and 60,000 USD in just 10 years. It is like someone has just kept the 50,000 for him, and will be giving him a part of it for the rest of his life. This is a great goal. But wait! Should this story be about this score?
Integrity Pays, sure? Well, which rewards? The lesson in Emmanuel Tuloe’s story that many have missed!
Media and blog reports regarding this story seem to say that being honest and living a life of integrity pays, in material sense! And this is a serious case of missing the point! While Emmanuel’s act was indeed a heroic one, and earned him rewards, it could as well might have hurt him!
Remember, he isn’t the first one to do that. For example, few days ago, a Ugandan hotel attendant, Joan Nansubuga, recovered 36 million and returned it to the owner, only to be rewarded with just 100k Uganda shillings and, I am sure, a bunch of motivational speeches! According to Fatboy, well, this was simply unfair!
And, just as some of Emmanuel’s friends branded him a fool, similar stories like Joan’s and others across the globe might just imply that one is a fool indeed considering the fact they surely don’t fetch the material rewards that Emmanuel fetched. But he isn’t a fool, is he?
Acts of integrity cannot be sustained by our expectation of material gains or rewards, at least not alone. If this is the only motive, there wouldn’t be a difference in returning the money or not! Why? Because, in either scenarios, we would be counting our material profits! In other words, to become a champion of integrity, one has to look beyond material rewards and praises, and cherish inner-most rewards of just being honest. For Christians, these rewards go deeper and far away from the inner self to eternity, to the true joy of obeying Christ.
I have always argued that whenever we fail to act out integrity, we should question our motivations. As long as our motivations are just material gains or not beyond self, then we can’t hold it for long, forever!
To set out to do good is to have the heart of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; Daniel 3:16-18
Being an honest person will not always pay us. Sometimes, you will actually be hurt for being a person of integrity. But your rewards, that is, the motivation for being honest and a person of integrity aren’t necessarily of this life and this world. Our true, untouchable, and everlasting reward is in heaven.
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