Oppressed as a Rohingya in Burma, Dollah left his homeland seven years ago, arriving in Australia by boat.

FINDING an envelope on the street stuffed with cash would be enough to entice some to quietly pocket it but not refugee Dollah.

Pride of Australia - Dollah displayed incredible honesty when he found a pay packet on the street containing hundreds of dollars and handed it in to the police. Dollah is a refugee who is working in the local meat industry not only to pay his rent but also to get food to his refugee family trapped in a remote corner of Bangladesh, Gympie - Photo Steve Pohlner

FINDING an envelope on the street stuffed with cash would be enough to entice some to quietly pocket it, but not refugee Dollah.

Oppressed as a Rohingya in Burma, Dollah left his homeland seven years ago, eventually arriving in Australia by boat.

He was walking home from his shift at the meat-works in Gympie when he spotted an envelope lying on the ground.

Inside, there was several hundred dollars.

“I find the money. I decide it’s big money,” remembers Dollah, who has been granted permanent residency.

Unsure who the cash-stuffed envelope belonged to, he handed it in to the police.

“Police said you need half? I said, thank you very much but this is another person’s money,” he recalled.

“I said this is a hard job.”

His selfless actions and humble spirit earned Dollah a Pride of Australia Fair Go Medal nomination.

Sitting in the lounge of the Gympie home he shares with several other refugees, Dollah feels safe. It is a world away from the persecution of his homeland, where his father died after three days of torture by the military.

With the wage he earns from his job at Nolan Meats, he sends home money to his wife, seven-year-old daughter and mother in Bangladesh.

His story has made headlines – and inspired people to pull together to buy him an electric-assisted bicycle so that he no longer has to walk to work.

“Dollah’s story is helping to change a nation’s asylum seeker debate which has spread from Gympie to the rest of the world,” said Gympie MP David Gibson, who nominated Dollah.

“This man, by his selfless action, has united a community in their resolve to do whatever it takes to improve his life.”