SINGAPORE - A cleaner who works at Bugis Junction was commended for returning $20,000 worth of jewellery to its rightful owner.

Mr Yip, 67, found a white bag in the toilet at the Bugis mall last Thursday (May 18). It contained gold jewellery, a diamond ring and a wallet belonging to 36-year-old businessman Mr Xie.

Mr Xie told Shin Min Daily News that the jewellery was given to him for safekeeping by a friend.

He put them in his bag before leaving for work as he was going to return the valuables to his friend that day.

Mr Xie left them in the men's toilet on the first floor of Bugis Junction, and went for a meeting.

When he realised that the bag was missing, he jumped up from the meeting and ran back to the toilet, but the bag was not there.

My Yip, the cleaner, had kept it and was going to hand it to his manager.

But he saw Mr Xie looking around in the toilet anxiously, and guessed he was the owner of the bag.

He verified that Mr Xie was the owner then returned it to him.

"He was panting heavily when he ran into the toilet," Mr Yip said. "I thought he must be looking for something."

Mr Xie went back to Bugis Junction to thank Mr Yip and give him a reward on Friday.

"I was devastated when I lost the jewellery, I didn't know how I was going to explain it to my friend," Mr Xie said. "I'm lucky Mr Yip found it."

Mr Yip told the Chinese evening daily that he finds a missing item in the toilet every two to three months.

He will always pass it to the management, he said.