# Found $100 at the grocery store. Am I an idiot for turning it in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 21, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563 "2018-05-21T15:38:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/41 "2018-05-22T03:56:28Z")
If I see something valuable lying around, I just ignore it and walk on, hence passing the moral buck to the next person to walk by. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/42 "2018-05-22T06:41:52Z")
I like the guys above whose position basically amounts to “if I give it to someone they will be dishonest and keep it, so instead I will be dishonest and keep it first! Yay me!”. Way to go people! You are certainly pillars of society and you have my everlasting respect. Personally, I’d do what I can to get it back to the owner, whether that be handing it in or passing my details on or whatever. If that means that some dishonest low life shit benefits then so be it. I would at least not be a low life shit myself. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/43 "2018-05-22T07:27:01Z")
> [@glee](#): > > “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” “It’s a victimless crime, like punching someone in the dark.” I found $20 in the National Air and Space museum. I waited around for about 5 minutes to see if someone came looking for it. They didn’t, so I kept it. I probably would have looked for a docent or whatever if it were either more money or a smaller museum. My obligation to do something is proportional to the amount in question and the likelihood of it making it back to the owner. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/44 "2018-05-22T07:37:25Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > We constantly have found money at the store. If no one claims it after 30 days, it is donated to charity. There have been many times where someone who has lost the money has been able to get it back. Sometimes honest action leads to good results. > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Is it donated to charity, or “donated” to “charity”? At my store the “charity” is the employee party fund - after enough accumulates it basically turns into free munchies and drinks or the annual employee cook out. So if you don’t take cash home yourself you’ll be buying part of lunch for the staff. How do folks feel about that? Now, if you leave money in the change slot at one of the self-serve checkouts and come back later THAT you might get back…if we can link it to a specific transaction and you have your receipt, and the money was turned in (employees much do that, the next customer may or may not do that). You have 30 days from the date of the transaction to do that. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/45 "2018-05-22T07:48:18Z")
One possibility would be to go to the service desk and ask them to make an announcement that someone had found some money, which could be claimed by coming to the service desk and correctly describing it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/46 "2018-05-22T11:37:36Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > One possibility would be to go to the service desk and ask them to make an announcement that someone had found some money, which could be claimed by coming to the service desk and correctly describing it. “It was green, and bore the picture of some long-dead president.” On vacation in St Martin, we were hiking to Pic Paradise, the highest point on the island. We were over 3/4 of the way up when I saw something along the edge of the trail. It was a roll of US currency, a little under two thousand dollars. It was obviously someone’s vacation cash. Our plan was to complete our hike, then return to Lotterie Farm at the base of the mountain. There we would have icy cold refreshments (I recommend a blender drink with fresh ginger, called Sex in the Trees). We’d talk with the people there. But we never got that far. Five minutes later, a couple hiking back down appeared. They were carefully scouring the ground while they walked. We asked what was up and they told us they’d lost all their money. I handed them the roll. They thanked us profusely, offered a reward (declined), and we all headed on our way. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/47 "2018-05-22T11:52:40Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > It was a roll of US currency, a little under two thousand dollars. It was obviously someone’s vacation cash. Thanks to you, they got away with doing something really dumb. That’s assuming, of course, that some local didn’t notice them peeling off some money from a wad of cash while they were shopping/eating/whatever. Nothing says “rob me” more than a large roll of cash being flashed around by some hapless tourists. I understand that credit cards are a brand new technology that’s still in its experimental stage, but they might want to take a walk on the wild side and give it a try. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/48 "2018-05-22T11:57:15Z")
Can’t see that you are an idiot. You identified the most important fact about the ownership of the money: it wasn’t yours. You picked out the best means of getting the money back to its owner: giving it to the management of the store where it was lost. The only thing I find wrong with your thinking about this is that you’re still doing it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/49 "2018-05-22T12:38:42Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Thanks to you, they got away with doing something really dumb. That’s assuming, of course, that some local didn’t notice them peeling off some money from a wad of cash while they were shopping/eating/whatever. Nothing says “rob me” more than a large roll of cash being flashed around by some hapless tourists. > > I understand that credit cards are a brand new technology that’s still in its experimental stage, but they might want to take a walk on the wild side and give it a try. :rolleyes: Actually, I too carry cash when vacationing in areas where “cash only” signs are common. In addition, when the dollar is not doing well, credit cards are often charged the exchange rate, while if paying cash many places will do the $=€ thing. I’m discreet with my money. Maybe it’s because I’m a big guy or maybe I’m just lucky or maybe the world isn’t that bad a place, but I’ve never been robbed. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/50 "2018-05-22T13:30:10Z")
Today I found a biggie full of quarters outside a laundromat. I’m keeping it. I have to do laundry too. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/51 "2018-05-22T13:54:01Z")
I have twice in my life found $100. The first time, I was a kid, and I found it with my friend. It was 2 fifties, and we each took one. Then, about 10 minutes later, we saw two people clearly looking for something right where we’d found the money. So we asked them if they’d lost something. They told us they’d lost 2 fifties. So we returned them. They were grateful enough to give us each a twenty. I guess they figured it was better to be out forty than the whole $100. The second time, it was just a couple of years ago. This time is was on a large parking lot at a strip mall. It was on the edge, not close to any particular store, and it looked like it had been stepped on a couple of times. It was one of the new designs, and I almost didn’t pick it up, because the color on it at first made me think “play money.” The second time, I wouldn’t have known where to begin trying to return it, so I just kept it. I have also found $20 bills twice. The first time, it was on the floor of a store, and I left my name and number, but no one called, so after a couple of days, I figured “free money.” I was a kid then, too, and $20 was a lot. My father pointed out the difficulty in identifying a bill found on the floor. The second time, it was lying on the street on the crosswalk as I was crossing. It wasn’t near any place I could have left my name, so it was free money again. For the record, I have found driver’s licenses, and checks a couple of times, and wallets full of credit cards, and once a wallet with cash, but also with and ID. All those times I went to some trouble to get them back to their owners. The time I found the checks was before the internet, and I ended up making a long distance call (back before they were free) to the issuer of one of the checks to get the number of the local person the check had been written to, so I could call her. Another time, I drove out to someone’s house to return her wallet, because she didn’t have a car, and would have to take the bus or a cab out to me. So I’m not casual about finding other people’s stuff. I found some keys once, while walking my dog, and I went around several blocks, trying the horn button on the keys until it beeped a car, and then I put the keys on the front seat. They had been about six blocks from the car, so there’s a good chance the owner wouldn’t have tracked them down. But plain old bills are different. There’s no way to identify them. No, I don’t think the OP is an idiot, but I also would not think the OP was wrong for having pocketed the money either. If the OP had found a wallet with ID, and cleaned out the cash, then thrown it away, that would be terrible, but pocketing cash you find is a whole different thing. IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/52 "2018-05-22T23:46:18Z")
I once found $240 outside a touristy store here in Nashville. I took it into the store and they took my name and address and said they’d send it to me if no one claimed it. Yeah, right. But in a month in the mail I get this envelope full of the money. StG ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/53 "2018-05-22T23:58:51Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > “It was green, and bore the picture of some long-dead president.” > . By describe, I mean a close approximation of how many bills of what denomination. In this case, wrong-o – the picture on the found money was not a president. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/54 "2018-05-23T00:13:05Z")
I accidentally left a $20 in an ATM once. I just walked away without taking it :smack:. Once I realized my error, I went back and the money was gone from the ATM. I asked around and a near by store had been handed the cash and they gave it to me. :). Thanks honest stranger, people like you make the world a better place. ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/55 "2018-05-23T03:52:14Z")
I’ve found all sorts of things throughout the years, including money, wallets, pagers, cell phones. etc. I’ve sometimes gone way out of my way to return them or otherwise find the rightful owner. I’ve never regretted doing so. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/56 "2018-05-23T07:58:18Z")
I once found $20 on the street, at a time when $20 was a lot of money to me, and handed it in. It was weeks later that I realised it probably wasn’t a lot of money to the person who lost it, and was on the cusp of acceptable “finders keepers” money, so I should’ve pocketed it. Cut to thirty years later, and the OPs $100 is probably about the same, depending on what the standard of living is in your city. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/57 "2018-05-23T09:58:16Z")
Yes. I would hand it in. This kind of thing is always a struggle. If found openly on the street well, I’d keep it. A few years ago I purchased some clear roof panels, they were $50 each. At home I found an extra panel which I hadn’t paid for. I thought about it and then returned to pay for the extra panel. I brought my children up to be honest so this seemed like the right thing to do. Thankfully the guys at the hardware place were astonished and maybe that had an ongoing effect. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/58 "2018-05-23T13:41:54Z")
Probably the most reliable thing to do with found cash is to turn it into the police. Even if you find it in a store, turn it into the police and tell the store that’s where it is. The police have procedures in place and you’ll eventually get the cash if no one claims it. Of course, the cash could get “lost” with the police just as it can with the store employees, but I think there’s less risk of that with the police. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/59 "2018-05-23T13:48:34Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Probably the most reliable thing to do with found cash is to turn it into the police. Even if you find it in a store, turn it into the police and tell the store that’s where it is. The police have procedures in place and you’ll eventually get the cash if no one claims it. Of course, the cash could get “lost” with the police just as it can with the store employees, but I think there’s less risk of that with the police. I had lunch one day with a group of cops. Leaving the restaurant, right outside the door, one of them found a hundy on the ground. Rather than turn it in, he pocketed it and mentioned something about a new rifle scope. I was too shocked to say anything, but nobody else in the group called him on it either. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563/60 "2018-05-23T13:50:26Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Probably the most reliable thing to do with found cash is to turn it into the police. Personally, I want as little interaction with the police as possible. If it cost me $100 to achieve this it would be worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-100-at-the-grocery-store-am-i-an-idiot-for-turning-it-in/814563.md?page=4)