Saeed Al-Ghamdi, an elderly Saudi man, who loves to collect old currencies and coins and has a shop in Souk Al-Sawarikh in Jeddah, said he never expected that anyone would steal his treasure and make off with it.

He said a young Saudi couple came to his shop asking for valuable coins. Later, he was surprised to discover that an Abbasid era coin valued at SR7,000 was missing.

He was even more surprised when the young man returned the coin to him after a few days and begged his pardon for the crime. “We took the coin to sell it so we could have enough money to travel abroad,” he said. The couple had even found a good offer for the coin but then their conscience struck them and they decided to return it, the man told the coin collector.

Al-Ghamdi continued, “I forgave them considering their good intention and decided to gift them the coin instead.”

He said that it was a valuable coin which was prevalent during the time of King Abdul Aziz.