I found a wallet today

[Mr.Marion]

I found a wallet on the ground today
Inside was the guys ID so I went to the guys place and gave it back. Other than the ID there was $110, a bunch of lotto tickets, and the typical other wallet items like credit cards, bank card.
There was a temptation to take the cash. I could have easily just left it in his mailbox and there would be none the wiser. Funny thing is I knocked on the door and personally gave it back. They guy acted surprised, but not at all thankful. You figured with all that was recovered he could have been grateful. But karma got the best of me and I returned it with everything inside.
Question to you guys, would you have taken the cash?

[LordMudd]

When I was in Germany I met a guy with a German girlfriend who had a young son. One day he found a 20 Mark bill on the floor in the local market. He ask everyone if it was theirs. Nobody claimed it. About that time a woman walked in the door, said it was hers, snatched it and walked out, without saying thank you. Guy said the kid watched her go then said next time he would put it in his pocket and not say anything.


CCC.

[enyawd72]

I found a wallet on the ground today
Inside was the guys ID so I went to the guys place and gave it back. Other than the ID there was $110, a bunch of lotto tickets, and the typical other wallet items like credit cards, bank card.
There was a temptation to take the cash. I could have easily just left it in his mailbox and there would be none the wiser. Funny thing is I knocked on the door and personally gave it back. They guy acted surprised, but not at all thankful. You figured with all that was recovered he could have been grateful. But karma got the best of me and I returned it with everything inside.
Question to you guys, would you have taken the cash?

No way, and I'm surprised that you would have even been tempted seeing as the guy's I.D. was there you clearly knew who it belonged to.
Now if I found a mysterious duffle bag full of cash in a parking lot, that's another story.

[Hector]

Did he give you a reward? At least a refreshment of some kind?

If someone returns a wallet to me...I'd give him at least ten percent of my cash and offer him a beer, heck, a six or twelve pack...

[Mikey]

No BS, like 10 years ago I was walking along a semi rural road and seen a 20 dollar bill just laying there in the grass ... As I was scooping it up I seen another --- and another.

60 bucks just lying there in the middle of nowhere --- I considered it a gift from the Gods

Now if it was a wallet with ID that would be a different story ... My guilt and empathy would overwhelm the fun of quick cash if I kept it.

[Hector]

I once found a fifty dollar bill in the streets way back in the early 80s, lot of money those days...and I was like 19...treated all my buds to the movies and pizza...

[Mikey]

Now I feel bad

I squandered mine on a Hallmark Deep Space Nine Christmas ornament

[Brazoo]

Reminds me of this:

It was late at night and my wife and I were in the USA about to drive over the boarder back to Canada and we stopped in at the Duty Free shop. After shopping for about 20 minutes a strange woman came up to me and addressed me by my full name. At first I was caught off guard, I figured she knew me and I felt a bit on-the-spot trying to recognize her, so I'm a bit nervous, because I think I'm about to feel embarrassed for not remembering someone I knew, and at the same time I was also a bit suspicious trying to figure out what kind of scam this woman might be trying. Then she showed me my passport - she found it on the ground in the parking lot. And as I reach out for my passport in my head I'm furious thinking "the ONE THING I asked my wife to do was PLEASE take care of the passports and put them some place SAFE, and what the HELL was she thinking?!!" and I'm feeling embarrassed in front of this stranger, because "what kind of idiot loses their passport 1 min. away from the boarder?" and all this is running through me at the same time, and the woman is smiling and saying "have a nice trip" or something. I'm sure I smiled and thanked her, but I frankly don't remember doing it.

About a minute later I realized how ungrateful I must have seemed, and I was SOO DAMN GRATEFUL she bothered to find me and give me back my passport. For all I know I could have been stuck at the boarder for hours trying to sort that mess out if she didn't bother tracking me down.

So, I think you did the right thing, and on behalf of awkward jerks like me THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

[Goblin19]

I find wallets a lot at my job. Never been tempted and usually people are very appreciative. Sometimes, young people can be rude or at least indifferent about it. I once sifted through a garbage can and our dumpster for a girl who thought she might have thrown her wallet away. After,she couldn't have been ruder, not even a simple thank you. She just walked away.

[Brown Bear]

This one is black and white right and wrong. You did the right thing. Taking the money that didn't belong to you would've been a dick move. Good to see honest people in today's crass world. Bravo.

[MIB41]

You did the right thing. After all, integrity is what you do when no one is looking.

[palitoy]

All you have your name in this world and it's worth more than a few bucks.

[HardyGirl]

Well, I've been on the receiving end of this, twice...

Once in high school I left my wallet in the donut shop before school. I got on the school bus. This guy who was in the shop, followed my bus to my school and returned my wallet. I was really happy! I didn't have any money to give him, (it was my last dollar in that wallet), but I was really grateful. Another time I lost my wallet in the movies, when I finally found it, the cash was gone, but everything else was still there.

So to answer your question, no, I wouldn't keep the money. I'm a firm believer of what goes around comes around, and I don't need negative things coming back to me. Returning the money is just the right thing to do period. Now if you find money and there's no one else around the claim it, (happened to me a few times), that's different, b/c there's no one to return it to.

[Donkey Hoatie]

I've had similar and semi-similar instances of this.

In college and grad school, I worked in a bar as a bouncer. During cleanup at the end of the night, inevitably I'd come across loose cash (which I'd pocket) and dropped IDs and wallets along with other items (my favorite finds were a couple of higher-end watches and a stun gun). I would always return the IDs and the wallets intact. It was generally pretty easy to get in touch with the person through campus directories. A couple of times, I'd find wallets from people who went to other colleges in state (the bar entry age at University of Illinois was 19, so we were a popular travel destination for other schools). Everybody was thrilled to get their wallets and IDs back. They'd offer me some of the money, but everyone was a young, broke student and the $10 or so they'd offer wasn't worth the feeling I'd get from telling them to keep it and pay it forward some day. I don't know, it just felt like knowing I did the right thing wasn't something you could put a price on, so I didn't.

Fast forward 20 years and I'm walking down the street to work. On the side of a busy road is a driver's license. I pick it up and see that it's an older guy who lives about 5 or so miles away. So, at the end of the day I walk home, get in my car and drive over there to return it to him. The house is huge and gorgeous with an immaculately manicured lawn and landscaping. I ring the doorbell and ask him if he lost his license recently. I tell him where I found it and hand it back to him. He eyes me suspiciously, snatches it, and then slams and locks the door in my face. No "thank you." No acknowledgement of any kind. Nothing. It was weird and really awkward. I paused at the door for a moment and then drove home.

[drquest]

I'll put effort into finding and returning stuff like this. The world is full of jerks and crooks, and I just don't want to be one of those myself.

I was pulling out of a restaurant one day, on a fairly busy road and I watched a wallet and cell phone come flying off the roof of a car two ahead of me. I pulled over and grabbed everything. This poor guys wallet exploded, and his cell phone wasn't in great shape, but the battery had flown out as well. By the time I grabbed everything the car was gone.

I had a driver's license, and the guy was from a few towns away, but no phone numbers or anything. I put the phone back together and it on and it was still functional thinking I could get some info there, but he had a pattern lock on his screen. I decided to drop all of this off at the local Police Department and started driving there when his phone rang. I answered it and said, did you lose a phone and wallet? He was still in the area and called from his wife's phone. We met up in a parking lot and I gave him all of his stuff. He offered some cash, but I declined.