Is it normal to take money if you found it?

91% Normal
22 Comments

This seriously just happened. I went into a gas station store, and as I was stepping up to pay the cashier for gas, I looked down and saw a $20 bill just sitting on top of some candy in the candy display in front. I picked it up and looked around. There were two other customers in the store - one was talking to the other clerk, and one was just walking up to the line. I considered asking, "Did you drop a bill/some cash?" but I figured it was just as easy for someone to claim it who it didn't belong to, and though I wanted to be honest, I didn't want to be a naïve sucker either. So when the cashier asked, "May I help you?" I gave her the bill to pay for my gas. I looked around again and waited, but no one said anything. I went outside, looking around and checking to see if anyone was checking to see if they dropped money, once before and once after I pumped gas, but it never happened.

Is what I did dishonest, or is it normal to keep this money and just do a "finders-keepers" thing? (If anyone had said "did you see a $20?" I would have given it to them.)

Voting Results
91% Normal
Based on 56 votes (51 yes)
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Comments ( 22 )
  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    It's normal...but I wouldn't have kept it. I would have turned it over and said, "someone must've dropped this."

    I have dropped money before, and retraced my steps looking for it...to no avail. $20 is hard for some to come by.

    When I was 20, I was scraping together every dime to pay for my wedding ring set. I worked a job washing trucks. I went to make a layaway payment on them, and discovered that the $20 bill I had stashed for the next payment wasn't in my pocket. I was devastated.

    ...and of course, retracing my steps produced nothing but blank looks.

    If it isn't yours, it belongs to someone else. I'm not being judgmental...what you did is as normal as the day is long. Most people would've done the same...but that money belonged to someone who may have been crushed by losing it.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      That's the closest to how I felt, and I felt bad for the person who lost it, but that's a good part of the reason I hung out before and after pumping gas, even asked a couple of people by the pumps, went back in the store a couple times, then drove around the station until I got weird looks from the cashier, so I drove off.

      I'm one of those people who will almost always give someone money if they ask for it on the street or by the side of the freeway. I've found money, wallets, phones and purses before, and not once did I keep what I found - I would turn it in to the nearest authority, but a couple of times that that has happened in the past I know for a fact the person I gave it to kept it. I felt like I didn't want to be in that position again. I'm not wealthy by any means, and I know what it's like to need to have $1 to eat, so I really wanted to get this $20 back to the person who lost it, especially if they really needed it.

      Looking back, though, those two people in the store were at the other cashier and within the store, not like they were at the cashier I was in front of at any point, though they could have been. The person at the other cashier was a well dressed woman who was complaining about something. The other guy was wandering around the inside part of the store. I waited and waited for someone to say something or come running back in the door looking or asking, but no one ever did.

      Ironically there was some change in the money tray in front of the cashier, which I looked at and said, "Someone left change," and left in the tray when I went to pump my gas.

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      • [Old Memory]
        10 years ago

        I didn't mean to sound judgemental, and I'm not questioning your integrity. What you did is normal and sounds like you certainly put some effort into trying to figure out if the original owner could be located.

        I just like to think that I would have handed it to the cashier and said, "I think someone dropped this." Most likely, the cashier would've said, "thanks" and pocketed it...but I'd feel like I did the right thing.

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  • Shrunk
    10 years ago

    I found 15$ at a shoe store but it was wrapped with a crumpled receipt and coupons as in it appeared to have fallen out of someones pocket. I feel like an idiot now but I gave it to one of the people working at the store, saying i think, someone may have dropped this. They didn't make an anouncement or anything so I wonder if they just pocketed it. I thought about going back to the woman and say, you know what i just realised that's actually mine. But, conscience wouldn't let me. If I find just cash by itself, i don't feel bad taking it though.

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  • megadriver
    10 years ago

    Yes, it's normal. When someone lost it and you found it, you take it. You can't figure out who's money it was. And if you don't take it, someone else will. After all, 20$ more is 20 in the positive.
    Found 20 Euro in the bus one time. Took them. Lucky day.

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  • White__October
    10 years ago

    Of course it was the right thing to do, who wouldn't have done the same? Other people shouldn't be so stupid to leave their money laying around like that.

    On the other hand you were lucky it wasn't a joke. It's one of the oldest tricks in the world to lay some money in a place where it has to be found, only with a small fishnet wire attached to it that they pull the minute you grab it.

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  • thegypsysailor
    10 years ago

    It's not like you all are talking about someone's life savings here; it's 20 bucks, or 15.
    Enjoy!
    If it was 17k in a brown bag, feel guilty or do the right thing, but 20 bucks?

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  • dirtybirdy
    10 years ago

    I found $20 in my parking lot and I knew who had dropped it but I kept it. She's a bit of a snob soooo...I needed the money more than her.

    MINE!!!!!

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      You have got corrupt feathers.

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      • dirtybirdy
        10 years ago

        Not really. I've been given too much change several times and I always tell the cashier and give it back. Someone walked away from the self checkout thingy without taking their change and I told them. So shut your trap.

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          How about you shut your trap.

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    You did the right thing. If you asked they could lie.

    One thing that works in situations where you want to be honest with found items is asking "did you lose something?" If they answer correctly then return it but otherwise keep it.

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  • [email protected]
    10 years ago

    God bless you.

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    thats right

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  • shuggy-chan
    10 years ago

    in your case, just chalk it up to good karma was due your way

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      I once stole five dollars. My balls ached badly for a week afterwards.

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  • GoraIntoDesiGals
    10 years ago

    Ikr. I have the CCTV videotape xD

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  • Anigav
    10 years ago

    Most people wouldn't return your money if they found it so FUCK IT YOLO

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  • uhhyeahidk
    10 years ago

    i get your reasoning completely but i think i would still have asked the other person in the store. unless i really really needed it, it wouldn't sit right with me to keep it. i think its a little weird to assume that people are going to lie when you would have the same reaction even if they were telling the truth. im not really sure. i don't think youre a bad person or anything for this though

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  • o_0
    10 years ago

    I don't think you did something wrong.
    but you could have asked the two men with a good tactic.
    like you could say to them that they should check if they have lost some money (hiding the amount you had)and if they said yes you could have asked them how much. if they really had lost that money they would have told you the right answer. that's what my school in-charge does and it usually works. :)
    plus if I had been there at your place I would have dome the same. :p

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    I found a five dollar bill in the middle of a large vacant field a couple months ago. I felt SO GUILTY spending it later.

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  • Couman
    10 years ago

    I think I would feel weird about doing that inside a store. If it was outdoors though I'd keep it without a second thought.

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