A man traveled 320 miles just to give $28 to a police officer. The reason is a lesson in humility

True integrity often means choosing what's right over what's convenient. A man in China demonstrated this when he traveled a long way to repay a loan of just 200 yuan (US$28) that he had borrowed from a police officer a few months earlier. In the fall of 2023, the anonymous man walked into a police station carrying a bag of oranges and 200 yuan. He traveled through two provinces to return the money and express his gratitude to the officer who had helped him when he needed it most, reported the South China Morning Post.

At the time, the man worked in Hubei, an inland province in Central China. Suddenly, he lost his job and needed to return to his home in Henan, a province in Northern Central China.

The distance between Hubei and Henan is around 320 miles, roughly a five-and-a-half-hour journey. But the man was broke, having spent all his money. To afford the journey, he even sold his phone, yet it wasn't enough to cover his expenses. Without his phone, he couldn't contact friends or family. In desperation, he went to a police station for help. A generous officer named Luo lent him 200 yuan.

Grateful for the officer's generosity, the man wrote an IOU note, acknowledging his debt to Officer Luo. The note read, “Today I am borrowing 200 yuan from a police officer at Yinji police station. When I get home, I will ask my parents for money to repay the loan from the police.” And he did what he said he would do.

A few months later, he returned to the police station, full of gratitude. He arrived there and spoke to the officer stationed at the front desk. “I’m here to return the money,” he told the officer. The officer, probably puzzled, replied, “Return what money?” The man nodded and relayed the entire story to the officer. Officer Luo was called to meet the man.

“Why are you here?” Luo asked him. He replied, “I’m here to return the money to you.” The man slipped the cash from his pocket and extended it towards Officer Luo, who declined it at first. “Helping others makes us feel happy,” Luo said. When Luo insisted on refusing the cash, the man presented him with a bag of oranges. However, just before leaving the station, he quietly slipped the money to Luo and hurried out of the police station.

This touching story reminds us of another man’s story who epitomized integrity by traveling more than 180 kilometers at the age of 99 to return a towel to the hotel he had taken accidentally a few years ago. The hotel staff must have forgotten about the towel, and in the Chinese man’s case, Officer Luo must have forgotten about the 200 yuan, but both men did the right thing, setting great examples of integrity.