I can tell you what the policy is of the store I work at.
If a customer hands in found money we’ll take it in, but if no one claims it we will never call that customer back. Once you give it to the store the store considers it the store’s property. So our people would likely not bother to get contact information from such a customer, and even if the store had the contact information it would never be used.
Not that is the store’s policy - any opinions I personally may or may not have about it is a different story.
Similar situation last June: Found a $20 bill on the bottom of the pool. Inquired of the lifeguards and aerobics instructor (who just finished a class) if anyone reported losing money. Nothing. Turned it over to the manager and suggested putting it into the party fund for the lifeguards if no one claimed it. Apparently no one did.
I just wanted it off my hands and to go to a good cause if the owner didn’t get it back.
Only if I were homeless and desperate. And I’d still have $50 left over!
On a more serious note, as much as I hate to admit it, my answer depends on my circumstances. There have been times when I’ve been on my uppers and not knowing if I would have anything to eat the next day (I once pawned my watch for $10 so I could eat for a couple of days), and for that me I probably would have kept it with glee, and not given a second thought to the person who lost it. These days I am very comfortable and would not even be tempted. I’m not sure where the bright line between the two selves is drawn, I hope it’s pretty far towards the earlier case.
I found a $10 bill sitting on the bottom of a lake once. I considered turning it into a fish I saw swimming around that seemed to be looking for something, but I kept, still feel a little guilty about it.
What type of fish seemed to be looking for something? A trout or a bass? If so your conscious should be clear because clearly it was a billfish that lost it.
Look, there is about zero chance that the store would or will be able to turn it into the person who lost it, so by handing it over, you are just making a multi-million $ company $100 richer.
Having had the chance to think about it, here’s what I’d do:
Pocket the money.
Call the store a day or two later, and ask them if someone has contacted them, saying they’d lost some money in the store. If someone has done so, and what they say they’ve lost corresponds to what I’ve found, I bring it in so they can pass it along. Otherwise, I keep it.
See, that’s what bothers me. If someone shows up at the store and says they lost $100, great - they get their money back. But if not, the store is $100 richer and I’m not. I don’t feel like an idiot for turning it in as much as I feel like an idiot for letting the store take control of the situation. I should have just asked for a manager and said “Hey, here’s my phone number. If anyone reports losing a large amount of money, have them call me.” If nobody ever calls, then finders keepers.
So what? It’s not my money. I don’t keep things that don’t belong to me. If I were certain that there was no way to return the money to the person who lost it, I would donate it to charity or something like that.
This, at least, is the attitude of the current, non-desperate me.
Loose bills go right into the wallet unless it’s obvious someone is looking around for something. There’s almost zero chance of found cash making it’s way back to it’s original owner.
This. I have turned in $60 I found in the store. And anyway I’m solid enough financially enough that anyone working at a store & who decides to pilfer it probably needs the cash much more than I do, so it doesn’t honestly feel wrong either way for me. And I feel honorable by doing the right thing.
My policy if I see somebody else’s lost money is to leave it lying there. It’s not my money, and it’s not magically-appearing “free money” falling like manna from heaven. It’s the property of somebody else who would probably like to get it back.
Realistically, it’s not very likely that the owner of the lost money actually will get it back, but that doesn’t justify my stealing it to keep for myself.
Turning the lost money in to an employee might or might not increase the chances that its owner will get it back, but I wouldn’t call it “idiotic” unless you happen to know that the employee is intending to keep the money for themselves.
No, OP, you aren’t an idiot for turning it in. It wasn’t yours, there was a reasonable chance that the person to whom it belonged was going to come back looking for it, and you did the right thing.
A couple years ago, I was at a Subway near my house, and saw a crisp $100 bill at my feet. I picked it up and handed it to the cashier and told her, “This was on the floor, and it’s not mine.” A few minutes later, as I was filling my soda, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and thanked me, and wanted to give me a small reward. I refused and said I was glad she got her money back.