Good-as-gold Iranian hands back recovered treasure to owner: report

"My parents taught me that you should return property belonging to others when you find it," the inhabitant of Aligudarz, a city in western Iran, was quoted as telling the daily Etemad.

The 52-year-old found the bag last month while searching through rubbish bins placed in the streets, the report said.

"When I started sorting the rubbish, I realised that inside a bag there was gold and dollars" whose value was estimated at 20 billion rials ($31,000), the newspaper quoted him as saying, anonymously.

"I kept this gold and these dollars for a few days, but I could not keep them for myself," out of fear of violating the principles of honesty he was raised on, he added.

No goldbricker, he said he tracked down the bag's owner thanks to a bank card inside, according to Etemad.

The story of selflessness is all the more striking given the sanctions-hit country's economic challenges, where local media say annual inflation exceeds 40 percent.

The assets belonged to a woman in her 50s whose grandson threw the bag away thinking it contained rubbish, Etemad said.