Dear Mr. Midnight
I am struggling with an ethical dilemma in regards to lost or misplaced money.
When is it alright to take the money and run, if ever.
Like for instance - if someone drops some money in front of you on a street, say $20, would it be reasonable to expect most people will attempt to give the cash straight back to the owner.
But what if $20 is discovered on a seat within a cinema as a session is about to start and with very little other people about. What then?
Does the amount make a difference? Say instead of $20 you found $2,000 or even $20,000. At what threshold would it be a keeper and at would level would it need to be handed in… to someone?
Does it make a difference how the money is found? For example if the money is found in an official bank bag does this make a difference? Or in a shopping bag? Bundled with bank slips or held together with rubber bands? Found in an envelope with personal documents?
I look forward to your wisdom and moral guidance on this dilemma, yours in Voodooness D.Saturday.
Funnily enough, not 20 feet from where I’m sitting right at this very moment is a group of lawyers who I could ask about this very question. The only problem with that plan is that lawyers tend to get jittery when you ask them for off-the-cuff legal opinions, in the same way Doctors will ask you to kill a Sunday resurrecting their virus-ridden PC, but will treat you like a fungal infection for asking medical advice in a situation where they can’t charge you for it.
Luckily enough, we don’t really need to ask the lawyers, because we already know about the crime of Larceny By Finding, don’t we. … Don’t we? Hello?
I kid you negatory, Larceny By Finding is a real offence - at least in Australia. I have no idea about other, obviously whacky parts of the world. Essentially it’s the crime of keeping goods you know to not be yours without making a reasonable attempt to find the rightful owner. Presumably, whatever attempt you made (if you made any at all) has to stand up in a court of law as being reasonable, so waiting until you’re alone in a deserted field after midnight before asking if anyone has lost $20k probably isn’t going to cut the mustard.
So, in the case of a Sydney man back in 2005, police were able to lay a charge of Larceny By Finding (or Steal By Finding) against him for not reporting $250k he alleged he had found by the side of an alleyway.
But, let’s go back to the original question and the original amount. Obviously, it’s unlikely to become a police matter that you found $20, unless the place you found it was in a policeman’s wallet.
In these situations I think the “do unto others” rule tells you pretty much all you need to know. Sure, some would argue that the rule to follow is the “others have already well and truly done it to me more than once, so I’m keeping this as a bit of karmic retribution” rule, but they’re just bitter in an ugly, ugly way, and we don’t want to have anything to do with them, do we. … Hello?
I say hand it in. But that’s just me.
oh….well yes….of course…it’d be wrong not to hand it in. Very wrong.I was…just asking s’all. Dang! Now I feel real guilty…umm not about anything specific you understand, just a general test of character failure. Dang!
Ahhh this one’s easy… what you need to do is stick it in your pocket and next time you pass a charity box in a shop - pop it in telling yourself that it was never yours in teh first place! It’s always difficult at first to get a kick out of passing it on - you could always put it to one side and practice it with the odd coin you’ll find on the pavement - but I guarentee you there is no better game (ask my kids!) then running into a shop to get rid of some money and walking out feeling a lot lighter!
Actually, Janice, I think that’s a wonderful solution! Well done, that woman!
Midnight