Money Morality - what would you do?

craggus

We found a tenner in a McDonalds a number of years ago, and handed it over at the counter. About ten minutes later we decided that it would only find it's way into company profits and so went back in to ask for it back!

Interesting you should refer to it as "theft" Copperplate... not sure I agree with that at all. Do you apply the same principle to a pound? ...or a penny? After all, money means different things to different people. At what point does it become acceptable to slip it in your pocket?

I'd pick it up and pocket it, the same as I would if I saw any litter on the bus

CopperPlate_2

It is theft craggus, theft by finding. You are required to give it to the ower, if you can find/identify them, or hand it in to the Police. Where you draw the line is up to you - handing in 10p found in the street where there was no identifiable owner, or £50 dropped by someone, whom you saw drop it and could therefore identify it as belonging to someone. The offence is the keeping it without the intention of handing it in.

I'd hand in a tenner if I found it in the street, but I might draw the line at the pound coin. I'm not trying to be holier than thou, it's just the law.

CP

in_my_wellies

I handed in a purse in a shop in America - it contained just a few dollars and a couple of cards.

A minute or two later a lady started to panic and asked at the counter if they had seen a purse - they said NO!!!!!!! I butted in (very nervous) and said 'it might be the one I just handed in' They still denied knowledge but the owner and I asked them to look again and surprise, surprise, they 'found' it, saying 'oh, I didn't think you meant that one!
a few minutes later she came up to us outside - with an ice lolly for all my children!
Yes - goes around, comes around

LilacLillie

I lost £40 postal order''s last year on a bus. I had no idea how they worked, not having had one for donkey years (in the 60's). I didn't even know they were still in use.
I asked on this site and was told anyone could cash them.
I would have handed them in, so thought there was a slim chance someone else would.
Rang Transport for London and the guy cracked up.
He said I had 'not a chance in hell' of ever getting them back. He even thought it funny I'd taken the time to ask after them.
He did apologise for laughing but said I was 'naive' for thinking I'd get anything back that was lost in London.
3 wks ago I left a large bag of medication on the same route bus. I was more afraid of it falling in the wrong hands, there was some strong stuff in there (Diabetic medication, blood pressure etc: )
I really expected that to find its way back, it had my DH name & address on it and wasn't any use to anyone else........................still waiting!
LL

chun wrote:

I have handed in a£10 note and after a month the police gave it to me.I have also handed a watch and it was given to me as well after a month.I gave the money to my friend's disabled daughter.The watch got nicked at work one day.I will never hand in anything to a bus driver because in the 70's when I was very trusting I handed in a wallet with £68,no I.D. to thre driver and when I checked with the bus company the next day, I was told a wallet was handed in but there was no money.I had no witnesses, but they(the bus com. people) did come round to interview me.I , unfortunately to this day don't know the outcome.I was so upset that the driver was so dishonest. My australian nephew lost a £50 in london last summer, anyone picked it up?He hated carrying coins, so he was wiser after that.

Papa_Lazarou

A few months ago I saw someone withdraw about a tonne from the hole in the wall. Gassing with a mate, they took their card and forgot about the money. For a second I thought about it and then yelled after him (he was 20-30 yards down the road so I could have taken it...).

In the end, I thought how i'd have felt about it and hence I called him back :beer:

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks to all the 3075 participants who took part.

Previous Poll Topic: Poll started 17 July 2006: Money Morality - what would you do? You're on a bus. The person sitting next to you gets off, the bus doors close and it starts to drive..... at that moment you realise a £50 note has dropped out of their pocket and is on the seat next to you. Which of these is nearest your likely action?

A. Pocket it quietly and silently think hoorah! 46.5% - (1431 Votes)
B. Hand it in to police/bus driver 28.8% - (888 Votes)
F. Get off the bus at the next stop and try and track them down 14.9% - (459 Votes)
C. Take it and give it to charity 5% - (154 Votes)
D. Give some to charity and keep the rest 3.9% - (121 Votes)
E. Leave it on the seat 0.7% - (22 Votes)

Total Votes: 3075

yung

will definitely return the money

gravitytolls

If I see someone drop something, I always return it. If I find something, and there's no address, I take it to the police station.

Must confess, if it was loads of dough, I'd be sorely tempted, but I hope I'd still do the right thing.

Contains_Mild_Peril

LilacLillie wrote:

Why on earth do you think the police would give it back??????????????
Do you know any police people?
I would have thought they were the last people to give it to...........a charity at least, but the police??
I'm lost for words............ for once.

They can't be bothered to come out for crimes nowadays, let alone give some money back to someone who may have a great need for it.
Someone I know was robbed last night. She lives in a hostel and was left with just the clothes she was standing in.
There is CCTV of the person going in her room and taking EVERYTHING, yet the police can't give her a crime number, or indeed even come out because they had 63 calls last night and are too busy. They will try to contact her within the next 7 to 14 days!!!!
The hostel can't keep the tape that long, because they only have 4 tapes????
We live in a strange world and times.

That's a horrific story, and no doubt warrants a few formal complaints (which would no doubt be duly ignored) and I don't mean to sound cold-hearted about it, but it's of very limited relevance to the discussion of what to do with found money.

My friend once handed in £20. They said if no-one claimed it, it was her's.
She went back 2wks later and they'd lost it and had no record of her handing it in????
LL

To the police? If so, that's very strange. WHere did this happen? I wasn't aware there were any police authorities which would normally return unclaimed property to the finder after as little as 2 weeks. It's 3 months where I live, and most other places I'm aware of. If they did not issue a receipt, that's also most unusual. If you mean your friend handed it in to a business on whose premises it was found, well that's one reason why I wouldn't hand found money to, for instance, a bus driver.

In our hypothetical scenario, I'd try to get the attention of the owner of the money and the bus driver so that I could return it to its owner straight away, but I would not go to the trouble of getting off at the next stop to search the streets for the careless owner.
I am not suggesting for a moment that bus drivers as a group are untrustworthy, but there are 4 main reasons why I would generally hand money to the police rather than the bus company.
1. I'd expect that the loser would be unlikely to know exactly where it was lost, and so would probably try the police first.
2. I'd get a receipt from the police station, whereas the bus driver could simply pocket the cash without any record existing.
3. If the bus driver handed it into the police, it would then be returned to the driver if unclaimed, and not to me!
4. Some transport companies actually charge people for the return of their own lost property - a practice which is morally objectionable and legally questionable, and not one I would wish to abet.

I'm assuming that those who would give it to charity would not expect it to be reunited with its owner if they handed it in; I don't imagine that any of you would give away money which is not yours to give for any other reason. I can sort of understand this way of thinking, since my local police station still uses old-fashioned duplicate books for lost and found property, so it's easy to overlook things when trying to match up the "losts" with the "founds". I'm really surprised they don't use a computer to do so much more efficiently.
Technically, keeping any found money or other property without trying to return it to its owner is theft, but my main criterion for deciding whether to hand it in would be whether there was a realistic chance of its owner claiming it. Thus, if I found 50p in a primary school playground I would give it to the school office because its owner may well ask if it's been handed in, but if I found £1 in the street I would not hand it in to the police station because the chances of its owner enquiring after it there would be negligible.

emily_jackson

There's been plenty of times when I've found money on the floor and kept it, but only when I don't know who it belongs to. You can't hand it in to the police station, as how can it be identified? I'd only give £50 to charity if I was rich.