29362: (news) Chamberlain: Haitian worker to be honored (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   NEW YORK, Oct 20 (AP) -- The temptation was there: an envelope stuffed
with $12,450 in cash, stashed under a hospital patient's pillow.
   But the housekeeper at St. Luke's Hospital didn't hesitate before doing
the right thing.
   For Marie Toussaint, it was a no-brainer.
   "The money didn't belong to me, and I wasn't supposed to take it," the
50-year-old Haiti native said. "That's the normal thing to do."
   Toussaint found the envelope, filled with $100 bills and "a few
fifties," after the patient checked out on Oct. 4. She handed it over to
the nurse in charge.
   A relative of the unidentified patient, an elderly woman, later
collected the money.
   Toussaint will be honored for her honesty next month at a hospital
Thanksgiving party.
   "Some people are crazy about money," she said in a telephone interview.
"But my conscience would kill me if I took it, because I believe in God."