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If you found a wallet...

If I could return the wallet, I would definitely not touch any cash left in it.

The closest to this I ever came was when I found 60 dollars on the street once. No one was any where near me, so I pcketed the money. But just to keep the karma good I gave 20 bucks of it to a homeless guy I met a block or so away.
 
Leet Apple said:
....

I'm not perfect, but its better then just leaving the wallet wherever i find it...
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There are other options besides leaving it, or taking the cash....

I'm not perfect either, but I do strive to be the best that I can.

I guess we were raised differently. I like living in a community where someone makes an effort to find the hitchhiker who dropped $0.87 in change in their car.

I was raised with some pretty simple guidelines about what is mine, and what is someone else's... and when you have someone else's stuff without their permission.
 
mobilehaathi said:
Oh, I didn't mean to imply anything about you. I'm just trying to understand the reasoning; I'm not interested in pegging you as some kind of grand larcenist.

I should have said, "this kind of thinking is why we have locks on doors." I'm talking about raw opportunism combined with the justification that the action itself isn't all that harmful. It would be easy to use this kind of thinking to justify strolling into an unlocked house and snatching a couple minor items.

Although it seems you're making a lot of assumptions about the importance to someone else of any particular bit of cash. £100 might not be a lot to some people, where as to another £10 could be the difference between eating or not that day. Besides, if £10 is so trivial, why bother taking it in the first place?
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All fair points TBH, and I'm not really sure. You're right that even a small amount of money could mean a lot to someone.
 
snberk103 said:
There are other options besides leaving it, or taking the cash....

I'm not perfect either, but I do strive to be the best that I can.

I guess we were raised differently. I like living in a community where someone makes an effort to find the hitchhiker who dropped $0.87 in change in their car.

I was raised with some pretty simple guidelines about what is mine, and what is someone else's... and when you have someone else's stuff without their permission.
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It sounds like you want to make sense of things, but are failing horribly. Your view of reality seems clouded. Earlier it was leave the wallet, then it was pocket the cash. Now your finding hitchhikers and giving them the cash from the wallet you found, pocketed the money, then left back on the ground where you found it. Kidding of course, but that is about how much sense what you said, made to me.

What I got from it was that you wouldn't touch it even If you were trying to return it because it could still look like you are trying to steal it? Correct?
 
bdodds1985 said:
It sounds like you want to make sense of things, but are failing horribly. ...
What I got from it was that you wouldn't touch it even If you were trying to return it because it could still look like you are trying to steal it? Correct?
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I'm not sure where you get that from... [Though perhaps from the way I was quoted - see below]
1) If I find a wallet, I make an attempt to return it directly. If I can't return it directly, I take it to the police. I return intact, with all money and cards untouched.

2) I like living in my community, which tends to be generally safe and honest. I gave an example of how someone (not me) once tried to return pocket change left in their car to a hitchhiker. I know the story is true because I read the ad myself.

3) If I found pocket change in my car, if I knew the person (by sight) I would wait to give it to them next time I saw them. If I didn't know them, and didn't see them again for a while I would probably give some $$ to the housing-challenged fellow who cleans up around town for donations.

4) Bills on the ground are in a grey area. If there is a store or something nearby, I take it in and leave it with them in-case someone comes looking. They will either do the right thing, or they won't. I can't control that. If the bills are out in the open... I call that a reward for trying to do the right thing in other cases. Unless it's a large sum, then I take it to the police.

5) The exception is loose change on the ground. That's just mine. One can take things to an extreme.

I have a very clear and unclouded view of reality, I believe. I know what is mine. It was given to me or I bought it. Other things are somebody else's generally. If I have something that is not mine, I attempt to get it back to them - or failing that to somebody else who needs it.

Does this clear things up? Or are you perhaps confusing me for another poster?

UPDATE: I re-read the thread, and someone has quoted me in way that makes it look like I said something different... (entirely unintentionally I believe)... so just read the original posts to understand my position.
 
snberk103 said:
I'm not sure where you get that from... [Though perhaps from the way I was quoted - see below]
1) If I find a wallet, I make an attempt to return it directly. If I can't return it directly, I take it to the police. I return intact, with all money and cards untouched.

2) I like living in my community, which tends to be generally safe and honest. I gave an example of how someone (not me) once tried to return pocket change left in their car to a hitchhiker. I know the story is true because I read the ad myself.

3) If I found pocket change in my car, if I knew the person (by sight) I would wait to give it to them next time I saw them. If I didn't know them, and didn't see them again for a while I would probably give some $$ to the housing-challenged fellow who cleans up around town for donations.

4) Bills on the ground are in a grey area. If there is a store or something nearby, I take it in and leave it with them in-case someone comes looking. They will either do the right thing, or they won't. I can't control that. If the bills are out in the open... I call that a reward for trying to do the right thing in other cases. Unless it's a large sum, then I take it to the police.

5) The exception is loose change on the ground. That's just mine. One can take things to an extreme.

I have a very clear and unclouded view of reality, I believe. I know what is mine. It was given to me or I bought it. Other things are somebody else's generally. If I have something that is not mine, I attempt to get it back to them - or failing that to somebody else who needs it.

Does this clear things up? Or are you perhaps confusing me for another poster?

UPDATE: I re-read the thread, and someone has quoted me in way that makes it look like I said something different... (entirely unintentionally I believe)... so just read the original posts to understand my position.
Click to expand...

I was just pulling you're chain and I'd not expect a life stories worth of philosophies in exchange for one question, but you cleared it up for me. Thanks.

----------
ericrwalker said:
It's kind of sad that we have to lock our cars and house, and that still doesn't stop people.
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as well as expensive alarm systems. Really sad.
 
bdodds1985 said:
as well as expensive alarm systems. Really sad.
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Yup, and that doesn't stop a lot of people.

I would never steal from anyone. You can leave your car or door wide open and I wouldn't even enter. As a matter of fact. It wasn't that long ago people used to leave their car doors unlock, and when I saw headlights while parked I used to shut them off for people. Unfortunately, in the past 10 years things have changed dramatically. Hardly anybody leaves their car doors unlocked now.
 
I would definitely return it, but would expect a thank you from the owner too. Three weeks ago I found a macbook pro 13inch on campus really late at night, and the lost & found office was closed. Since it was the time of midterms, I decided to open the owner's address book to contact someone. I found the owner's details and called/texted him and left him a message. He contacted me the next morning, by which time I had turned it in at the lost and found department. He texted me a little while later that he picked it up, and just thanked me. I expected some kind of reward (even an ice cream would have sufficed) because I went through so much trouble for him. nothing at all. :( But I felt good that he got all of his stuff back safely.
 
tjb1 said:
When I find a wallet, I immediately take any money out and replace it with counterfeits then return the wallet.
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[Donning a disguise] For more fun, don't return the wallet - take it to the police station [/disguise]....

But I didn't say that out loud. And I would never ever really do that.... drat... I think my halo slipped a bit.....
 
snberk103 said:
...4) Bills on the ground are in a grey area. If there is a store or something nearby, I take it in and leave it with them in-case someone comes looking.
Click to expand...
I've actually done that once or twice. I know how I'd feel if I dropped a $20 inside or just outside a store.

As far as leaving the money with someone at the store...well, I'd just have to trust them. If they keep it for themselves, at least it's on their conscience, not mine.

As far as the wallet goes...no way would I keep that, or any part of it. Hell, I'd call the person straight up. Just as I wouldn't leave a wallet on the sidewalk for somebody to steal, I wouldn't be comfortable myself until I'd found the owner and the wallet was out of my possession.
 
Cash on the ground, I would keep. There is no way to know who the real owner is. If it had any identifying info, like a wallet would most likely have, I would try to return it. If I needed to mail it to them, I would ask if it's OK to use the money in it to pay for the shipping, but that's it.
 
My dog is a golden retriever and is one big happy loopy oblivious idiot.

They say people are a lot like their dogs.

Whenever the subject of honesty has come up over the last 20+ years, I have always recounted this story:

While working at a major hospital, and being behind in my rent to the tune of $348, one lunchtime I found a wallet on an outside bench containing... exactly $348.

This was obviously a test by some sadistic deity.

But being the honest chap that I am, and knowing the owner of the wallet probably had enough on his plate - being at a hospital and all - I handed the wallet over, with cash, to the front desk. The woman behind the desk suggested I leave my name and number, in case of reward, which I did.

Well I never got a reward, or even a "thank you" phone call, and for 20+ years the moral of my story was that perhaps next time I'd just take the cash if I really needed it...

... until, some 20+ years later, I told this story to one of my less-than-honest friends, and without missing a beat he said "the woman behind the counter took the cash and framed you."

You know, for over 20 years that had never even occurred to me, yet it took my dishonest friend about 60 seconds.

I guess I'm one big happy loopy oblivious idiot.

I found $50 on the ground in the supermarket a few weeks ago. Nobody was around who could have dropped it. Am I going to hand it to a cashier who will just pocket it themselves? It crossed my mind. Briefly.
 
To be honest, I don't know. It would be tempting to take something but I'd feel too guilty. If there was no form of identification (address/name) to mail it back to, then yeah, I'd keep it.
 
I'd return the cash and wallet and everything that was in it intact. If I get a reward, great, if not, so be it.

It's what I would like done to me, and someone is clearly fretting over losing their personal belongings, especially if it is their wallet.

I once found someone's iphone 4/4s in a washroom stall at the college where I work, would have been easy to pocket, take home, or sell or whatever, but if I lost my iPhone I know I'd be feeling terrible, so I turned it into security.
 
I'd check for ID and find some way to get it back (fully intact and with everything in it originally) to the owner. Seriously, people generally don't carry that much cash and I like to earn mine through my own work. I'm not rich but I'm not dying for the $60 in someone's wallet.
 
Of course I'd try to find the owner, or return it to the local PD. I wouldn't take anything from it.
 
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