Indonesia's Richest Man Was Once Scolded by a Female Rice Seller
Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was known as one of Indonesia’s richest people in his time. When he led Yogyakarta from 1940, he inherited vast wealth along with the kingdom’s feudal system. However, this abundance of riches did not lead him to live in luxury.
On the contrary, Sri Sultan was known for leading a simple life. One story often remembered is when he once served as a truck driver transporting rice.
This incident even led to him being scolded by someone who did not know who he really was.
The story began when he was driving his Land Rover truck from the countryside to the city centre. A woman who was a rice seller stopped his truck in the middle of the road because she wanted to hitch a ride to the market in the city.
The woman did not know that the person she was asking for a lift was the leader of Yogyakarta. She asked the truck driver to help her load the rice onto the truck.
Sri Sultan complied and carried two large sacks onto the truck and delivered the woman to her destination. When they arrived at the market, he unloaded the sacks.
The woman tried to give him payment, but Sri Sultan refused and returned the money. Feeling rejected, the rice seller was offended and scolded Sri Sultan thoroughly.
She thought the truck driver did not want to accept it because the amount of money was small. Even after Sri Sultan left, the woman still could not accept that her money was refused and judged the truck driver as arrogant because he felt he did not need the money.
Finally, someone informed her of the true identity of the truck driver. The woman was extremely shocked and fainted, requiring her to be taken to the hospital. Sri Sultan, upon hearing of the incident, immediately went to the hospital and visited the rice seller.
In addition to the story about becoming a rice transport truck driver, Sri Sultan’s simple life is also recounted in Takhta untuk Rakyat: Celah-Celah Kehidupan Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX (1982). He did not choose to go to a restaurant to escape the hot weather.
When Sri Sultan needed a refreshing drink, he chose to buy ice from a street cart on the roadside at Klender Station, Jakarta, in 1946.