Store owner grateful to couple who returned bag filled with thousands of dollars, calling them a 'good family'

A Georgia convenience store owner who lost a bag filled with $25,000 said he knows how lucky he is that a good Samaritan couple returned it to him.

Gautambhai Patel, who was transferring money from his store earlier this month, pulled his car over on the side of a road to take a call.

When the call was over, he accidentally left the bag full of cash on his car and drove off. It wasn't until he got home that he realized the bag was missing.

But a few hours later, he received a call from the Rincon Police Department telling him that Jeff and Mechelle Green had found the bag and returned -- with all of the money still inside.

"The family is a good family," Patel said. "They have a good culture.”

"He's honest. He did not take anything from the bag," he continued, referring to Jeff Green. "That's a good guy."

Rincon Police, which launched a search immediately after Patel reported the bag missing on Nov. 16, said it hoped someone would "do the right thing."

"Our office began investigating but hoped that whoever would find the bag would do the right thing and turn it in," the department said in a Facebook post.

The Greens did just that.

"Local residents Jeff and Mechelle Green are those amazing people!" the post continued. "They recovered the bag and made sure it was returned to the rightful owner.

"We always encourage citizens to do the right thing both morally and legally!" the statement added. "Thank you to the [Greens]!"

A Rincon Police Department spokesman said the Greens have a reputation as a generous couple in the community.

“Not a surprise to his friends and family that they would do something like that,” Robert Lipovsky, public information officer with the department, told ABC News. “We are a fairly close-knit community. And we are trying to look after each other.”

Patel said he was grateful the Greens didn't take the money for themselves.

“It’s a rare case,” he said. “Most of the time people [would take] the money.

"They were thinking that the money was not for them," he added.