CALIFORNIA – A Muslim owner of a Burger King branch in San Jose has returned to police a backpack which contained US$100,000 after finding it abandoned at one of the restaurant’s tables.

“I am Muslim, and we believe that you have to sweat to get what you earn,” Altaf Chaus, the owner of Burger King at 1305 N. Bascom Ave in San Jose, California told Santa Cruz Sentinel.

“We say: ‘If you don’t sweat, it’s not your money,’ ” he said.

The backpack was found at Chaus’ restaurant last Wednesday when a waitress found it left on a chair during the hectic lunch hour.

Hoping someone would return to claim it, Chaus kept the bag next to the cash register.

Chaus waited for hours, hoping that someone will come and pick the bag. However, he finally had to open it catch his birthday party at home, hoping to find anything that might identify its owner.

“I opened the zipper and saw tons of bills, wrapped with rubber bands and stacked,” said Chaus, 53. “I called the police right away.”

“There were 10 bundles — and $10,000 in each bundle,” he said. “I was shocked.”

“I’ve never seen that much in my life,” he said.

Chaus, who came to America from India 26 years ago, has worked in three jobs when he first came to the US, namely fixing air conditioners during the day, working at Taco Bell in the evenings, and then running a gas station all night, until daybreak.

He supported his American family, his parents and three siblings in India, and saved up enough to buy the Burger King.

Arriving at the restaurant, police opened the bag in which they found candy, a bag of marijuana, a piece of paper with phone numbers and a bank withdrawal slip.

Chaus’ birthday dinner was delayed until late Wednesday night.

“No one has come back to get it,” Chaus said.

“It belongs to someone, It does not belong to me.”