Wang Huiming, a 68-year-old sanitation worker in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, has garnered widespread praise from netizens by returning deposit certificates worth nearly 2.46 million yuan ($346,614), Hangzhou Daily reported on Saturday.

At around 7 am on Oct 31, Wang found two bank deposit certificates lying on the road when he was cleaning the street as usual. Although he was not fully aware of the exact amount, he immediately handed them over to his supervisor.

The supervisor was stunned that one certificate was worth 1 million yuan and the other one was worth more than 1.4 million yuan. They then reported the lost deposits to the local police.

The police launched an investigation based on the deposit certificates and found the owner of the lost property was a man surnamed Lai. The money had been returned to him later at the police station.

While Wang is being hailed on social media as "a noble character," he said, "It's just what I should do. If I lost my money, I would be very anxious."

Wang started working as a sanitation worker in 2019, except for one year when his wife was seriously ill and he had to take a break from work and took care of her for more than a year.

According to the report, the sanitation company that Wang works for will reward him with a bonus for his honesty.