The Responsibility Project^®. Exploring what it means to do the right thing

Finders Keepers?

13 Comments

January 25, 2008 by Kathy McManus

Long after the holiday decorations have been put away and the presents have started to lose their luster, the spirit of the season past becomes increasingly hard to hold on to.

But we found that one woman’s gift to another still sparkled, well into the New Year.

In the mad crush of holiday shopping, a Massachusetts woman found the gift —an envelope with $770 in cash, abandoned in a crowded toy store. It was as if a benevolent stranger had left it there just for her. At 54, the woman was a widow and on disability while recovering from shoulder surgery. Now, visions of sugar plums danced in her head--along with a new HDTV. She picked up the envelope.

The envelope had been lost by a 48 year old woman who was on disability and in a panic. She had saved for a year to buy Christmas presents for her daughters and grandchildren. She called the toy store, but no money had been found. Christmas would be ruined.

The widow, meanwhile, reflected on how joyless her life had been before she found the $770. “If something like this can make me feel better and stop being such a bah-humbug as I have been, then that’s a good thing. It’s hard to get in the spirit, but this is certainly helping.” “This” was her decision to immediately turn the money over to the police. The next morning, the woman who had lost the cash called the toy store one last, desperate time, and learned of the widow who did the right thing. She started to cry. “I’m so flabbergasted,” she said. “She restored my faith in humanity.”

Yours too?

13 Comments

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• January 30, 2008 by Equality Four All

  This is an interesting story as I once found a $100 bill on the sidewalk outside a major hotel in Boston. I contemplated keeping it but thought I would do the right thing and turn it in. The front desk said that if no one claimed it in a year that I would get the $100. Well, of course no one claimed it and when I asked about the $100 bill there was mysteriously no record of it being turned in. I guess not everyone is as honest as this woman. The question I have is how do you distinguish between responsible behavior and foolishly putting yourself in harm's way and/or giving up good fortune for the benefit of a stranger? What criteria defines responsibility versus naivety?

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  • January 30, 2008 by Matthew

    I don't believe good fortune comes from money on the sidewalk. I've always thought that if you take from someone, eventually you will have something taken from you. Turning in the money was the right think to do. You should be proud of yourself for making the right decision.

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  • February 1, 2008 by Geoff Blair

    I have to disagree that turning in the money was the "right" thing to do. At a very young age, most humans are afraid of the dark in response to a fear of the unknown. As we grow older we understand that while there are not monsters under the bed, there are monsters in the world in many shapes. My point is this; when attempting to "do good" be aware that there are always those that will balance the scales and "do harm." In this case it was naive to think that the money would ever be returned, to either yourself or the person who lost it.

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    • April 8, 2008 by terrance tattrie

      Turning the money in with the hope that it would be returned to the rightful owner was absolutely the right thing to do! The fact that there was no record of it being turned in doesn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that YOU did the right thing.

• January 31, 2008 by Dorothy Gardiner

  My thoughts on this subject of returning money that isn't yours is simple. If you didn't earn, return it. About 2 weeks ago while I was paying with my debit card and asked for $20 dollars back, the clerk handed me $40 instead. I turned back to her and told her she gave me $20 extra and this is not what my receipt shows as being taken out of my acct. so I gave it back to her and she didn't even say thank you but I felt good in my heart because I did the right thing. I believe in karma - what goes around comes around.

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• May 31, 2008 by Donna

  I love the fact that the woman turned in the money. And, who knows, maybe the money landed in the hands of the person who needed it the most.

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• August 20, 2008 by Anne Marie

  There was a really similar story in the news this week in New York. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/08/14/2008-08-4_good_samaritan_who_found_100_bill_comes_.html It's quite a crazy story that $100 got returned from a cart in NYC! I would hope that most would do the right thing and turn in the money, but that's not always the case. We all can learn a little something from these people.

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• November 2, 2008 by mvctc

  I am 16 years old and I still remember when I was in 2nd grade how I was playing kickball, when I saw something flying across the ground. When I caught it, I found out it was a twenty dollar bill, which was a lot of money when you’re a little kid. I thought about just stuffing the money in my pocket, and getting a new cap gun, which one of my friends had and I really wanted. But I didn’t, I took it into the principal’s office and told them what happened, and they said to come back in two weeks, and if no one claimed it, then I could have it back. I went home that night one sad little boy, but when I told my mom what happened, she said she was proud of me for doing the right thing, and that made it right it to me. I wish this would work on more people today, when I see people just pick stuff up and pocket it, at school, on the bus, even at the store and stuff. It is just sad, and something needs to be done. (p.s. I did end up getting the money back, but it was almost two months)

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• May 19, 2009 by hazel

  When I was a teenager I stole money from my aunt, I confessed to it later, but I still have guilt to this day and I'm 27 now. The funny thing about this is that whole thing about karma you better believe it, let me tell you why. I got married at 18, we bought our house when I was nineteen we were doing good for a young married couple, then I got pregnant, worked fulltime I was putting money back so when I had my baby we had money to pay the bills since I would be off work for six weeks. Well we had saved $500.00 by the time I was 8 months along, I wasn't feeling good one night and kept telling my husband I should go home but I choose to stay that night (my husband and I worked night shift) when we got off work that morning we came home and realized we were robbed. We lost everything from the money to electronics. We didn't have homeowners so we lost everything we worked so hard to buy. The lesson here is if it isn't yours don't take it because that karma will get you when it hurts you the most. Also remember if it were you who lost something how you would feel.

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• May 28, 2009 by kristenpiper

  Turing in the money was a good idea, cause the person who needs it gets it now, but there are some bad effects on it is that someone who didn’t lose the money got the money. When they don’t even need it surprised that young of age that do that, because kids all around the world take the money off the ground and keep it.

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• June 16, 2009 by Mary Ramsay

  A few years ago I found a wallet on the street. I looked at the ID inside and phoned the owner. She said she would be right over to get it. When she came, she looked through the wallet suspiciously and then left. She never said thank you or non-verbally conveyed any thanks at all. I know I did the right thing but the experience left me saddened and a tiny bit less trusting.

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• June 15, 2010 by Cheap Insurance Quotes

  Could one solution be parking permits for our street? I would be more than happy to pay for a parking permit and help monitor the street if there any cars that don’t have the stickers. Other neighborhoods/street in Mt. Washington do it, why not Kambach?

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• April 25, 2011 by Stu Kopelman

  Once, an old, wise man asked the question to three interviewees: "If you found a sum of money belonging to your friend, but he did not know you found it, would you return the money to him." Turning to the first man, and asking him what he would do, the man said, "I am old, and very poor, and my family has hardly anything to eat; I would keep the money." The wise man said to him, "You are a thief. Sit over there." To the second man, the same question was asked. This man declared, "How dare you place me even in the same room with this thief; of course I would not take the money. I would immediately return it." To this, the wise man turned to him and said, "You are a fool. Sit there with the thief." The third man was asked the same question, and to the wise man he answered, "Sir, I do not know what I would do at the moment, but in the time of my struggle, God would give me the grace to choose rightly." The wise man let him go.

  We do not know what we would do, and how many of us saying so have turned around when the time came and did the very opposite of what we intended? Once I observed one man beating up another for his money; at another time, I watched the perpetrator get beaten up for attempting to steal it. Two people were beaten up. Both situations were different. Sometimes what we consider bad is unfinished. We do not know the final outcome.

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