Ethics Question: Found Money

$400 or more I would turn in. Sort of depends where you found it though... city street vs. little league baseball game, etc.

if its just, money on the street i would just take it, if it was in a wallet with an address, i would drive to the address and say you lost this.

if it was a big amount of money say 5k or more in a bag with no address, i would get a lawyer and go with the lawyer to turn in the money as the finder keeps the money if its unclaimed and drug dealers/thieves wont claim lost money.

the lawyer is necessary unfortunately as cops would likely pocket the money themselves.

I pick up everything I see except for pennies sometimes. I saw a woman drop a clip of about $100 once and gave it to her (she didn't realize she had dropped it). However, if I just found $100 on the street I would keep it. If I found something over, say, $500 I would probably do something to try and put it back in the rightful owner's hands, but I wouldn't really worry about it. If I found $5,000 or more in cash I would probably turn it into the police.

Put an add on craigslist in the lost and found but do not state the exact amount. Ask them to contact you and state the amount.

I found a wallet jammed into a public mailbox slot that had a small amount of cash as well as all other personal ID. Somebody else had obviously picked it up and stuck it there rather than bothering to contact the person.

I found the person on facebook and got it back to her. Apparently it had been stolen from her at a concert and somehow made its way about 50km to another town.

Everything was still in it including the amount of cash that was in it when it went missing.

An honest thief?

Before we get started, this is a question of morals, not ethics. Ejumucate yourself as to the difference.

Not if he's an atheist. Remember an atheist can't have morals. At all.

Terminology wrote:

Before we get started, this is a question of morals, not ethics. Ejumucate yourself as to the difference.

Happy to be ejumucated (I think - although I don't know what that means, so perhaps I should hedge on that one).

Ethics: moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

Perhaps my ethics forbid me to keep money found on the street if it is above $X.

So, until shown otherwise I tend to believe that this IS an ethics question (could just as correctly be termed a moral issue).

Captain Oblivious wrote:

Not if he's an atheist. Remember an atheist can't have morals. At all.

Good point. I consider myself to be more of an agnostic. So it stands to reason that I have questionable morals.

As a kid in England, I used to scrounge the supermarket floor for coins and occasionally found 1 and 2 pound coins, which I pocketed. A couple years ago I found a $50 bill in a NYC Duane Reade, which I returned to the counter. I wouldn't bother trying to find the owner of a $1 or $5 bill, but I'd probably try to locate the owner of anything $20 or above.

I would pick up anything bigger than a quarter, assuming it wasn't in a pile of dog poop or something bigger than that. I would probably keep anything less than $200 or so if it wasn't with a wallet or I had some reason to think I might be able to find the owner of the money.

Found Money - Not Too Much wrote:

Terminology wrote:

Before we get started, this is a question of morals, not ethics. Ejumucate yourself as to the difference.

Happy to be ejumucated (I think - although I don't know what that means, so perhaps I should hedge on that one).

Ethics: moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

Perhaps my ethics forbid me to keep money found on the street if it is above $).

Don't know where you got the definition from, because it's just wrong,

Ethics and morals both relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. However, ethics refer to the series of rules provided to an individual by an external source, e.g. their profession or religion. Morals refer to an individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong.

This is just a question of individual right or wrong.

You're welcome.

Captain Oblivious wrote:

. . . I found a wallet jammed into a public mailbox slot that had a small amount of cash as well as all other personal ID. Somebody else had obviously picked it up and stuck it there rather than bothering to contact the person. . . .

Turning a found wallet into the Post Office is apparently considered a legitimate way of returning it to the proper owner. I once had a lost wallet returned to me after getting a call from a Post Office (unfortunately one several hours away) telling me that it had been turned in and I could pick it up in person.

I imagine, like a lot of road runners and cyclists, I've found stuff along the road a number of times. If it is identifiable and has some value, I've tried to return it to the proper owner (e.g. driver's license, credit card, check). Twice I've found wallets that were presumably stolen and stripped of cash and ID and turned them into the police. Cash, unless it clearly was dropped by an identifiable person, I've kept. My largest find to date was a $50 bill, but mostly it's just coins.

Why are people handing in larger amounts?

Surely there are more reasons to keep it.

Found Money - Not Too Much wrote:

The second question is how much is too much? I assume that most people, if they came across a bag of money with say $100,000 in it would turn it in to the police and let them know they found it. I'm sure there are others who would keep it. The question is, for you, what is the cutoff point beyond which you would not just pocket the money but would instead turn it in to some authority (police or other)?

Haven't you seen A Simple Plan and No Country for Old Men? If you find $100,000 you leave it behind and run.

The money isn't your money no matter what the amount, but if you turn it in to the nearest cashier, etc., chances are they will just pocket it themselves. So if it's something smaller - say $40 or less - I would take the money and pay it forward. Do something kind with it to bless someone you don't know.

cheap0 wrote:

[quote]Found Money - Not Too Much wrote:

Today I found some money lying on the sidewalk. That has happened before. I assume that it happens with everyone.

I pick up everything I see except for pennies sometimes. I saw a woman drop a clip of about $100 once and gave it to her (she didn't realize she had dropped it). However, if I just found $100 on the street I would keep it. If I found something over, say, $500 I would probably do something to try and put it back in the rightful owner's hands, but I wouldn't really worry about it. If I found $5,000 or more in cash I would probably turn it into the police.

__________________

And, what do you think the police do with the cash?

Heyyy wrote:

The money isn't your money no matter what the amount, but if you turn it in to the nearest cashier, etc., chances are they will just pocket it themselves. So if it's something smaller - say $40 or less - I would take the money and pay it forward. Do something kind with it to bless someone you don't know.

Some years ago, on a challenge with some friends we each picked up all the "found money" spotted over the course of a year. At the end of the year after counting my findings (about $30) I dumped it in a Salvation Army bucket.

I would probably turn in anything over $100.

I did find a wallet with $85 in it while on a run a few years ago. After several attempts, I finally was able to get in touch with the owner (no license, just random ID cards) and returned the wallet to him. He was very appreciative. I refused when he offered me a cash reward. He later sent me a thank you note with a gift certificate to a local restaurant for $50. Made me feel good for doing the right thing.

Terminology wrote:

Found Money - Not Too Much wrote:

Happy to be ejumucated (I think - although I don't know what that means, so perhaps I should hedge on that one).

Ethics: moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

Perhaps my ethics forbid me to keep money found on the street if it is above $).

Don't know where you got the definition from, because it's just wrong,

Ethics and morals both relate to “right” and “wrong” conduct. However, ethics refer to the series of rules provided to an individual by an external source, e.g. their profession or religion. Morals refer to an individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong.

This is just a question of individual right or wrong.

You're welcome.

Most would say that there is no such thing as true morals then. From birth external sources try to drill into you the concept of right and wrong and what "the rules" are..

You would have to be someone like Tarzan to show true morals. Devoid of influence.