Tuesday, January 20, 2004
What Would You Do?
How many times have you sat around with your co-workers discussing found money? Just last week a co-worker and I were talking about how he had found a purse with $8,000 in it one time many years back. (He claims.) I asked him if he turned it in. He said, “No.”
A very, poor Romanian woman found �3000 Under A Seat On The Bus and turned it in.
She was rewarded �20 for her honesty.
Now, on the one hand, it seems like a slap in the face that they only gave her �20 but on the other hand, they didn’t have to give her a cent.
During the discussion with my co-worker, he had asked me what was the most money I’ve ever found. Well, I’m not that lucky. The most I’ve ever found was $5, however, I was with a friend of mine who found $100 on the floor of a convenience store. I got something out of it because she paid me back the money she owed me.
The above beg the questions:
1) If you found a large sum of money, would you turn it in if there was identifying information with the money?
2) If you saw $100 on the floor of a convenience store where someone was in line in front of you but you did not see them drop said money, would you do as my friend did and silently place your foot over it and say nothing or would you ask the person in front of you if it was theirs?
3) If you answered, “No” to question 1 and chose the former in question 2, what is the limit, the cut-off to when you would answer “Yes” or ask the person if they dropped it....or is there no limit for you, too bad for the person who lost their money? By this I mean, is $5 when you are honest? $20? $50? More?
4) If your answer to the previous question is, “There is no limit, I would never turn it in, ‘Finder’s Keepers’”, why would you not try and find the owner of the money?
While I’m on this particular subject, another co-worker from a job long ago found a laptop at a phone booth at the airport. The owner’s name and information was in the laptop but the co-worker made absolutely zero attempt to contact the owner nor did he turn the laptop into the airlines. He then sold the laptop to my boss for about $100. I told them both that Karma was going to get their ass....call this coincidence all you want but the person who stole the laptop, (in my opinion, whether he found it or not, the fact he didn’t even try to contact the owner makes it stealing in my book), shortly thereafter went through a nasty divorce. The boss lost his job about 6 months later. I am not making that up.
So, question 5) is:
If you had found a laptop, would you turn it in or would you keep it?
Be honest. If you want to hide behind a fake name, go right ahead but I want honest answers.
Proceed.
[update] I will now answer my own questions for all to see:
1) Much like Denita, I might get a twinkle in my eye thinking of all I could do with that money but I know that my guilt would kill me so I would turn it in. For me, having a clear mind is far better than buying things with “tainted” money. And if it was found in a bank bag, NO WAY would I keep it. That’s just asking for paranoia. If I saw it was drug money, I would NOT touch it. I would contact the police and let them deal with it. Not my concern what they do with it but as far as I’m concerned, stealing from a drug dealer doesn’t make it right even if what they are doing is illegal.
2) I would do as some have suggested here. I would ask the person if they lost some money but would not tell them outright how much. If they got the amount correct, I would move my shoe and pick up the money and hand it over to them. If they didn’t, I would give it to the store clerk to hold in case the person who lost it came back....even with no identifying information. Granted, I would leave my name and number in case no one did and the clerk handed it over to me. Again, it is not my duty to concern myself with whether or not the store clerk is honest. That’s on the store clerk. I would not expect to ever see that money again...but surprises do happen and if it WAS returned to me, I would not feel guilty because I made an effort to do the right thing.
3) No limit. If it was a dollar, I’d ask, “Did you drop a dollar?” If it was over $20, I would then follow my answer to question 2. Now, if I am walking down a public street and find that kind of money with no ID, then I would keep it because who do I turn it in to? But again, like Helen, Fate keeps her eye on me as well and I’ve never found that kind of money. The time I did find $5 was when I was 15 and working for the Ecology Youth Corps...picking up litter on the side of the road. The van was coming to pick us up from the side of the highway and I saw a piece of paper stuck in a tumbleweed at the top of a small hill. I said, ‘I just want to get that last piece of paper...” (took my job seriously you see), went up and saw that it was a $5 bill. It was mine.
4) n/a
5) There is absolutely no way I would keep the laptop. No. Way. Even if I found it on the sidewalk, once I found the person’s information, I would contact them.
There have been two times in my life when I lost my wallet. One time I was drunk....so it served me right I suppose, but the person who found it called my house and told me to come over. I did and gave him what little money I did have as a reward. The other time I accidentally left my wallet in a taxi. Now, the wallet itself was what caused me angst. I had purchased this small, blue, Hang Ten wallet when I was younger, about 16 and on the swim team with a friend of mine at a meet. She got purple, I got blue. It had sentimental value to me. The credit cards, the ID, even the couple of bucks I lost WERE replacable. I went through the process of closing old cards and getting new ones and getting a new ID. About one month after that, I received a manila envelope with the return address blacked out with my old credit cards and ID. Lot good it did me then. But no wallet. The envelope was meaningless. Several years later, I saw a man in the grocery store in front of me at the checkout. He pulled out MY blue, Hang Ten wallet. How did I know? Because the pop stain was in the exact same spot. Hmmm! I scrutinized this man and made him look at me by staring him down. I wanted to see if he would recognize me....whether he did or not, he gave no indication. But it was the cab driver. I said nothing because I had no proof that the wallet was mine. I couldn’t even say anything about the stain on it because he had it out where anyone looking at it could have seen it and what were we supposed to do? Send it in to a lab for the stain to be tested? “Why yes! It IS rootbeer! It’s HERS!” But I will never forget that person and never forget that he was using MY wallet as his own.
Karma will get him too. In answer to the karma question, who says you have to believe in G-d to believe in Karma? To me it’s a matter of energy. People KNOW when they are doing something wrong whether or not they have a conscience about it...and negative energy does surround you when you do wrong things. THAT is how you get negative back...my belief. Others may believe differently but I believe a lot has to do with positive and negative energy and not G-d or religion.
As my friend Farid pointed out...and I believe Teresa as well, you never know if that is the person’s ONLY money. I’ve lost money before as well and yes, in some cases, that was indeed all I had.
Of course I’m cynical of people telling the truth or not as well but again, it’s not my responsibility to worry about that. THEY have to live with it. Not me. If I lose out on the money....well, it wasn’t mine in the first place now was it?
