Indian-origin American man returns lottery ticket to rightful owner

In a kind gesture, an Indian-origin man in the US returned a USD 1 million lottery ticket to a customer who left it on a store counter.

Kal Patel, whose parents own the Pit Stop convenience store in Salina, Kansas, returned the ticket to the customer after tracking him down in his car.

After running the numbers and verifying its worth, store clerk Andy Patel called Kal to find out what to do, The Salina Journal reported.

"He said six zeroes were popping up on the screen," said Kal who has no relation to Andy.

Kal said he was determined to find the rightful owner of the winning ticket, even if keeping it would be life-changing for him and his family.

"I knew it was a longtime customer who had left it here," he said.

"They didn't know they had the winning ticket, so they never would have known if I hadn't found them. But then you'd have to live through the guilt of that all your life." Kal said he doesn't regret the decision because it was the right thing to do.