Modern Ethics I Fail The Tests

[Kinman]

Back in the '70's while drinking with a friend I found a $50 dollar bill on the floor of the bar. Well back then, a $50 was a rarity and its absence would have been noticed by the owner, so rather than spend it there and risk discovery, we made the decision to go to another bar. Worked well. I suspect that is on the "to be discussed" list with St. Peter if I get that far

Back in the sixties I was twelve and rode my bike down to the new Zip Trip for the hottest thing since sliced bread thing to hit the market....the Slurpee. I mowed lawns for money and often for less than a buck, depending on whether or not I used their mower and if it was gas powered. I big ole Slurpee was calling me after a couple lawns. I parked my bike out front so I could keep an eye on it and walked in, I noticed something out of place at the curb, reached down and picked it up. It was a dollar bill, looked like it was folded into quarters. I casually put it in my pocket, so not to attract any unwanted attention. Went in, got my COKE flavored Slurpee, paid with my hard earned change, went out got my bike and went around to the "cool side" in the shade, leaned against the building slurping down that icy goodness. I reached into my pocket and pulled out that bill, it turned out to be a TWENTY, I never had a twenty dollar bill in my hand before. I carefully unfolded it and it turned out to be not one but TWO TWENTIES...my mouth dropped open. That $40 represented about 40 lawns I mowed or a month worth of work. I got home and asked my mom what I should do, she said that someone is probably sick about loosing $40 or so casual with their money they didn't notice it. She said "Consider it your good luck, what would you do with the money if you had a choice?" I told her "Christmas presents for everyone in June." She said "Have fun with that..." I bought Christmas presents for everyone in the family including a Daisy Co2 powered bb gun for myself and bunch of cylinders and bbs not to mention a couple boxes of .22 rounds for my rifle. Turns out them cylinders nearly kept me broke, shoulda got a pump Crosman.

 

[Tom S.]

Not long before Christmas, I ordered a very large solid state hard drive from Amazon. At $780, it was about $120 off the normal price. A few days later I received a pretty large box from Amazon. Boy, they must have been concerned about damage, I thought to myself. When I opened the shipping box, I found a factory box containing 10 individually packaged hard drives. Holy crap - that's nearly $8k worth of drives!

The Devil on my left shoulder said: "It's Amazon's fault. Keep the extra 9 drives and if they don't say anything, sell them on ebay! Besides, $9k isn't even pocket money to Amazon!"

The Angel on my right shoulder said: "Some Amazon worker messed up and could loose their job for making such a mistake. Besides, you know it's not right to keep them."

The Angel won out and I sent them back - after I made sure Amazon wouldn't mistakenly refund my money or worse, try to refund it times 10!

Saint Peter and my mother will testify that I myself will never be mistaken for an angel, but I do have morals and values. Besides, Karma is a toothy old witch when she chooses to be.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Years ago I ordered some surplus items from one of the mail order houses, there were several boxes of Remington 280 included. Back they went. since I don't shoot one.
Found a man's wallet, had credit cards, a library card, nothing with an address of phone number, turned it in to the desk officer at the police station, wonder if I should have asked for a receipt.
Another time, found a man's wallet, had $3 in it, used that buy and envelope and postage to mail it to him.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Late 1980s I was working in a grocery store. I looked down and saw a large wad of cash on the floor. I picked it up intending to take it to the front desk which was standard for finding lost customer property. I counted the cash. It was over $600. At the time that was a small fortune to me, but I never considered keeping it.

But on the way up front I passed an older woman who was crying "my money, my money," while she emptied everything out of her purse searching desperately. I knew I had found her money, so instead of taking it up front I handed it to her saying, "Ma'am, I think I found your money on the floor back there. Here ya go." She, of course, was very happy. I might have felt even better than she did about it, though.

Now, to prove that I'm not perfect (as if anyone thought that,) many years later I bought a few items at a WalMart self checkout. Upon retrieving my change from the machine, I realized there was more than there should have been. Not a fortune, mind you, less than ten bucks. Rather than turn it in I kept it. I still feel guilty about that to this day, probably 20 years later.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

It has always been my understanding that if a cashier's or bank teller's cash drawer comes up short it comes out of their pocket.
Also it was drummed into my head that you do NOT embarrass a cashier or a bank teller over a shortage or an overpayment of cash.
A few years ago at I store I visit rarely I bought some work clothes, when the cashier rang up my order I told her "Those sound like 1970 prices !" We quietly resolved the problem between ourselves.