Money Moral Dilemma: Should I return a lost £65 jumper and keep the cash?

You say the pub 'where you work'. So it's not your own pub. What is the pub's policy on lost and found? Have you asked your manager what you should do? Did the rest of the staff know about the jumper? If not, how do you know that no-one has come in and asked about it?

I left something in a pub, and went back the next day. I knew I'd left it, I knew exactly where I'd left it, and there would have been no doubt that a staff member would have found it (I left at closing time). But there was clearly no communication between staff, and so no-one knew anything and I never got it back. It was of no real value to anyone else so unlikely to have been kept deliberately. Just no-one could be bothered.
I'm guessing that's what happened here, too.

Also I'm surprised that anyone paid cash for a £65 purchase.

You might as well go about wearing a striped pullover, a black mask and a bag marked Swag over your shoulder if you have that kind of attitude to another's lost property.

Had it not occurred to you to report the find to the local police station where most people who've lost something of value go in case some honest citizen has handed it in? If it isn't claimed, you can then claim it as your own and do what you want with it - but, for heaven's sake, do give the owner a chance to retrieve it.

Put yourself in the unfortunate owner's position - you wouldn't want a total stranger to profit by your momentary forgetfulness, would you? You'd really like him or her to do the decent thing.:mad:

Is it just me that is struggling with the solutions suggested here? It is a jumper. Yes, an expensive one you could argue but still an item of knitwear. I do not think taking it to the police station would be an efficient use of their time or at all in line with the value or nature of the item itself. Plus what about the poster's time? Just because they happened upon this item within their place of work does not mean they should then turn into a detective and spend a considerable amount of their own time travelling around, trying to locate the exact store, time of purchase, CCTV, to try and reunite this person with their lost item. If I lost something, I would retrace my steps and ask at the venues I visited. This person hasn't done this obviously or they would have come across it. But it's not the finders responsibility to take such extreme measures to reunite a jumper with its long lost owner. I would suggest a little perspective is needed here.


I would leave it in lost property at the pub where it was found, in case the owner does come back in looking for it at some point. Don't return it to the store and profit from it. If the item hasn't been collected or claimed after 3 / 6 months (whatever the lost & found policy is) then perhaps give it to a charity shop along with the other lost property.

its highly unlikely if you took it back anyone would know. I've worked in retail. When someone's lost their bag, they'll phone the shop asking if it's been handed in, we'll say no and take a number just incase. After a few days all staff have forgotten about it as items are rarely ever handed in then that will be the end of it. You returning the same item they bought won't trigger them to put the 2 together even if they were told all the receipt details. All I ever checked for cash refunds was that it was within the return period.
If someone did what you plan to do, I'd never have known it wasn't their purchase in the first place.