Chennai: For Santhanam, a farmer from Sriperumbudur, Monday was a day that tested his emotional strength. From hopes to misery to euphoria, he had it all in a span of 10 hours.

The 55-year-old misplaced a cloth bag with Rs 1.8 lakh cash meant for his daughter’s marriage on Mudichur road, near Tambaram. Around 8 am on Monday, he had paid an advance of Rs 60,000 to book a marriage hall on the same road for his daughter’s engagement due in a month, and went home, unaware that the cloth bag he was carrying had slipped from his hand.

The bag had Rs 1.8 lakh cash and invitation cards in it, the police said. At the same time, Rambabu (60), had come to see off his grandchildren to school. After the children boarded the bus, Rambabu was walking back home when he noticed the brown cloth bag on the road, in which he found bundles of currency.

The man took it home and informed his family who took him to the Tambaram police station where he handed over the bag to them. “Santhanam, who was not sure of where he had misplaced the bag, approached the police near his house,” Tambaram inspector (crime) Albin Raju said.

“We summoned Santhanam to the station and after it was confirmed that he was the owner of the bag, the cash was handed over to him,” the inspector added. Though the police asked Rambabu to hand over the cash personally to the man, he declined.

He said, “Just hand over the cash to the right person,” and left the police station. Rambabu runs a fertiliser store at Padappai, near Tambaram, the police said.