Looking for a lost Korean woman, shop owner refuses to accept 13 million VND in thanks

(Dan Tri) - Despite the language barrier, seeing the Korean man's face clearly showing panic and confusion as he told about his mother who had temporarily lost her memory and got lost in Phu Quoc, Mr. Phuong quickly took his car to help search.

At around 6 p.m. on November 2, Mr. Hoang Phuong, the owner of a fruit shop on Tran Hung Dao Street in Phu Quoc Special Economic Zone ( An Giang Province), was sitting in front of his house when he saw a Korean tourist with a panicked and bewildered face running over to ask for help.

The guest was traveling with a Vietnamese person. Through conversation, the Korean man said that he and his family were traveling to Phu Quoc. While the group was having fun at the Long Beach Mart area, the old woman, the man's biological mother, suddenly disappeared.

Photo of missing Korean woman (Photo: Character provided).

The family was very worried because the old lady had temporary memory loss. She might have wandered somewhere and couldn’t find her way back. In a foreign land, the Korean guest was even more confused because he didn’t know where to find his mother.

Seeing that the fruit shop was located on a main street and had a security camera installed outside the door, the customer asked Mr. Phuong to help check all the cameras to see if the old lady had walked past this area.

After seeing the photo of the old lady provided by her son, the shop owner immediately checked. Everyone strained their eyes to watch the screen so as not to miss any details.

After about 15-20 minutes of checking the camera, everyone gasped when they saw the figure of an elderly woman, holding a cane, walking slowly through the fruit shop. The son immediately recognized that this was his mother.

Without wasting a moment, Mr. Phuong followed the direction the old woman was going, and drove the Korean tourist on his way to search. Having lived in Phu Quoc for about 10 years, he was familiar with all the routes here.

Looking for a lost Korean woman, the shop owner refused to accept 13 million VND as thanks ( Video source: Character provided).

The two of them sat on a motorbike, checking all 3-4 main roads. While driving, he sometimes stopped on the side of the road to ask for information from street vendors and shop owners. Some people said they saw an old woman wearing the same outfit as the one in the phone, leaning on a cane and walking past about an hour ago.

Having found the clue, the two continued on their journey. Mr. Phuong also posted information on a group in Phu Quoc, asking for help from the community. His post received a lot of interactions. Many people enthusiastically provided him with important information.

Following the instructions, the two finally found the old woman still walking on the road with a cane. She looked tired but still conscious. When the Korean man found his mother, he almost burst into tears with emotion. After that, Mr. Phuong drove both mother and daughter back to his fruit shop to wait for the group's car to pick them up.

The Korean guest sent money as a thank you, but Mr. Phuong politely refused (Photo cut from clip).

It is known that the area where the old lady got lost is nearly 5km from Mr. Phuong's shop. The total search time took about 2 hours but everyone was happy and forgot all their tiredness.

"Seeing them happy and moved, I was also happy. Even though there was a language barrier between us, we could only communicate through phone translation software and body language gestures, but I knew the Korean customer was very grateful," the fruit shop owner shared.

To express his gratitude, the man slipped about 500 USD (more than 13 million VND) into Mr. Phuong’s hand, but he firmly refused. The two bowed to each other as a friendly goodbye.

"Helping someone in difficult times is the right thing to do, especially visitors from far away. I cannot accept this money but want visitors to understand that Vietnamese people are very friendly and enthusiastic," he shared.

Phu Quoc is now a popular choice for Korean tourists thanks to its natural landscape and good services. The increase in tourism from this group to the pearl island in the first half of this year is a clear proof.

In the first 6 months of the year, there were 725,114 arrivals to Phu Quoc on 4,443 flights. Compared to the same period last year, Korean visitors increased by 38.4% and ranked first among international visitors to Phu Quoc.

According to a representative of a local travel agency, Korean tourists here tend to travel in family groups, book individual services such as hotel rooms, island exploration services and stay for about 5 days.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/tim-cu-ba-han-quoc-di-lac-chu-tiem-tu-choi-nhan-received-13-trieu-dong-tien-cam-on-20251103232011927.htm