A 63-year-old man in Germany had a very Merry Christmas indeed after an honest finder returned the backpack he had forgotten under a tree — filled with presents and 16,000 euros ($17,700) in cash.

The 51-year-old finder alerted police after stumbling upon the bag near the centre of the western city of Krefeld shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve.

Officers were able to quickly identify the owner and reunite him with the backpack and its precious contents.

The man who found the bag “refused a finder’s fee, because it was Christmas,” Krefeld police wrote on Facebook.

“There really are people who do good deeds over Christmas,” they added.

In Germany, anyone who returns a found object is entitled to a finder’s fee based on the value of the item.

In this case, the finder would have been 490 euros richer if he had accepted the reward.

The police’s Facebook post sharing the feelgood story attracted over a 1,000 likes and nearly 180 comments, although some expressed surprise that anyone would walk around with so much cash.

A Krefeld police spokesman told AFP Thursday that while it was “unusual”, the backpack’s owner had said “he felt safer” carrying his money on him. (AFP)