She can’t read or write, never went to school, and signs her name with an “X.”
She survives on 600 reais a month, money she earns collecting cans, cardboard, and plastic bottles.
To earn 600 reais, she needs to collect around 600 kilos of material each month.
Twenty kilos a day. Seven days a week.
It’s hard, heavy, and sometimes humiliating work.
But it’s all she has.

On Tuesday, March 14, 2024, at 6 a.m., Dona Joana was at her usual spot in the Pituba neighborhood, checking the garbage containers of residential buildings.
She opened a large, heavy garbage bag, usually a bad sign for recyclers, since heavy bags often contain rotten food.

But she opened it anyway.

Inside he found a navy blue school backpack. Old, but zipped up.
He opened it.

And he saw money.
Lots of money.
Piles of 100 and 50 real bills, tied together with rubber bands.

I couldn’t count well, but I could tell it was a fortune.

She looked around. The street was empty.
She put her backpack in her trolley, covered it with cardboard, and went home.

At 8 a.m. she called her neighbor, Dona Cida, who knew how to read and count.

“Cida, help me tell this story.”

When she opened the backpack, Cida went pale.
It took her forty minutes to tell everything.

“Joana… here are 180,000 reales.”

Dona Joana blinked, confused.

“How much is that?”

“That’s the equivalent of three hundred months of your salary. Fifteen years of work.”

Silence filled the room.
Dona Joana looked at the money and then at her little wooden house: leaky roof, broken stove, old refrigerator.

With 180,000 reais, he could fix everything.
He could stop working for years.
He could travel to São Paulo to visit his daughter.

But he simply shook his head.

“Cida, this isn’t mine. Someone must be desperate for this money.”

At 10 a.m., Dona Joana went to the 14th Police Station in Salvador carrying the backpack.
The officer observed her: a recycler, with worn clothes, smelling of garbage, and an old backpack in her hands.

“Yes, ma’am? How can I help you?”

“I found this in the trash. There’s money inside. A lot of money. I need to find the owner.”

The officer opened the backpack and froze.

“Do you want to return this?”

“Yes. It’s not mine.”

The police counted it: 180,400 reais.

The officer explained:

“Without documents, without identification… legally, after 90 days, this money would be yours.”

Dona Joana didn’t fully understand, but she replied:

“Then I will return every day until we find the owner.”

And so he did.

Day 1: “Did the owner show up?”
Day 2: “And today?”
Day 3, 4, 5, 6… every day, at 10 in the morning, I returned to the police station.

The officers were getting more and more excited.
“This woman earns 600 reais a month and is looking for the owner of 180,000.”

On the 7th, the police station posted the story on social media:
“180,000 reais were found in a blue backpack in Pituba. The person who found it wants to return it. If you lost it, come forward with proof.”

The post went viral:
240,000 shares, 3.2 million views.

And on the 9th, something happened that would change Dona Joana’s life forever.

Early that morning, a man in his forties arrived at the police station, panting, with documents, bank receipts, and security recordings from his building.

It had been stolen.
The thieves had taken the backpack thinking it contained his work computer.
When they discovered it only had money—some intended for his mother’s surgery and some to pay off debts—they threw it in the trash.

The police called Dona Joana.
When the man saw the backpack, he broke down in tears.

“You saved my mother’s life. I have no words to thank you.”

Dona Joana just smiled.

“Go in peace, son. What is yours must return to you.”

The story spread throughout Brazil.
Newspapers, radio stations, and television programs wanted to interview her.
People across the country were moved by her honesty.

Within days, donations began pouring in: food, furniture, appliances, building materials.
A group of volunteers launched a crowdfunding campaign, raising over 220,000 reais—more than she had repaid.

With the help of the community, Dona Joana renovated her house, got a new refrigerator, a new stove, a real bed, and a decent roof over her head.
And for the first time in decades, she was able to rest for a few days without worrying about the next load of garbage.

When asked why he returned the money, he replied:

“Because if it were mine, I would want someone to give it back to me. God gave me little… but He gave me conscience.”

Today, Dona Joana continues to live simply, but with greater dignity, comfort, and recognition.
Her story remains a reminder that true honesty has nothing to do with wealth, but rather with the choices we make.

And so, a woman who had almost nothing became a symbol of everything that truly matters.