When TV host Sugie Phua opened the door at 8pm on Monday, he expected to see an ice-cream seller.

The 33-year-old did not expect to see three men with his wallet containing a $1,000 note that he had lost around five hours earlier.

"They showed me my identity card and asked if it belonged to me," he told The Straits Times.

"When I replied in the affirmative, they gave me my wallet and asked me to check its contents as there was a huge note in it.

"As I took the $1,000 note out of my wallet, one of them, who identified himself as Mr Muru Muru, joked, 'I am rich, I don't need your $1,000' as his two friends laughed along. It was a touching moment."

Mr Phua had not even realised his wallet was missing until the three men turned up. He reckons he lost it when he went to a coffee shop near his home at about 3pm.

The three men appeared to be Indian and Mr Phua said they did not sound local.

"I was unable to get their contact information, as they were in a hurry to leave," said Mr Phua, who kept the $1,000 note in case of an "emergency".

"I went back to my room and grabbed a handful of coins, hoping to catch up after them and treat them to some food and drinks, but they had already left.

"However, I remember one of them mentioning that they live nearby. There is only one coffee shop near my home, so I hope to run into them again and properly thank them for their kind deed."

In May, a Singaporean man found an envelope containing $10,000 in cash at a playground in Punggol Central. Mr Sean Lee, 42, waited for about three hours for its owner, construction worker Cui Hua Bi, to return to the spot so that he could hand it back.

The $10,000 amounted to five months of savings that Mr Cui wanted to send home to China.