After running yesterday, I found a watch on the floor of the locker room.
I picked it up and put it in my bag - at that time I hadn’t made up my mind to keep it, but it certainly was a possibility as I didn’t immediately turn it in to the health club office, or find pen and paper to post a sign.
(If it matters, both the health club and the locker room are in the basement of a large office building. The locker room is used by people health club members, as well as others who are not members. I used to be a member, but no longer am, using the locker room to change and shower before and after running outside.)
On the way home, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to keep the watch - for various reasons - and today I turned it in at the health club.
I’m not rushing out to buy sackcloth and ashes, but I’m just wondering how out-of-line my actions/reactions were. What possible factors do you consider significant with respect to the reasonableness/outrageousness of my behavior?
Yeah, it would have been really shitty of you not to turn it in. I’m glad you decided to do so. If you had kept it without at least trying to return it to its owner that is equivalent to stealing.
Well, you eventually did the right thing. So your initial instinct was less than virtuous, but at least you came around. I guess the ultimate measure of your righteousness would depend on your motives for turning in the watch; i.e. was it closer to “Gee, I probably should have turned this watch in, since it’s not mine and the owner is probably looking for it,” or “Holy crap, this watch is a total piece of junk, and I have a much nicer watch already.” Even if it were the latter, you could have tossed it out the car window, but you didn’t.
You did the right thing. In slo-mo, maybe…but the right thing nonetheless. Temptation’s a bitch, ain’t it?
When I get in those situations, I ask myself (out loud, actually), “Do I wanna be THAT guy?” If I have to ask myself that, I invariably “don’t” wanna be that guy.
I would say that is worse than some other similar situations. If you found it on the street, I would say it is no big deal because it would be difficult to track the owner down and the owner probably wouldn’t know where to look anyway. The fact that it was in a specific indoor location with a central point to turn it in makes this much worse in my opinion. It is quite likely the owner realized it was missing and knew exactly where to go to look for it. The fact that you kept it overnight means that the owner may have looked and given up hope and may never be reunited with it again.
One time I found a brand new dress in the stairwell at work. Someone had evidently dropped it. I had no intention of keeping it, but I did try it on, which may not be entirely ethical.
Right after that I found whose it was and gave it back to her. She had bought the dress to wear to her son’s wedding that weekend. Needless to say, she was happy to have it back.
That’s a good point. I’ll put a sign in the locker room (there is a bulletin board between the sets of doors) saying “xyz watch found on (date) and turned in to health club office.”
It is an “athletic” style watch, and there’s a good chance anyone using the lockers will use them again in the future. Unless someone was in from out of town (extremely unlikely). Or perhaps the loss of his watch drove him to commit suicide?! :eek:
Thanks for the suggestion.
One possibility I had considered, but rejected, was hanging onto the watch and posting a sign with my contact info, so I could have the watch if no one called. Or asking the health club staffer to let me know if no one picked it up. But I guess my guilty conscience just wanted to rid myself of the thing.
I think it’s good that you are returning the watch in the hopes thte owner finds it. I am in somewhat of the same situation
Through a web site that pays you back for shopping from it I was entitled to get a check for what I believe was X at the end of the year. My account showed that it had Y which was a considerable greater amount then X.
I have taken Y and put it in a savings account. If they contact me saying they made an error I will gladly send them the amount in error. If they do not contact me after three years then I will keep the full amount. I will keep the intrest either way
Reminds me of the old primary school dictum, finder’s keepers. I don’t believe in guilt or moralizing for others, but you have to admit that it is a good feeling when you are able to help out the other fella. If you really want that watch make sure that you specify a back up claim with the health club valid after three months or so.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that in many other cultures, keeping a lost personal artifact is perfectly appropriate.
Hey, you ultimately did the right thing, so don’t sweat it.
But there are side issues here that are worth discussing. If I ultimately wanted to keep the watch if no one eventually claimed it, I would not have turned it in. I would have told the deskperson or manager that I had found a watch, and I will happily return to the rightful owner if he/she can properly identify it. I would have then given them my full contact information. Maybe I would have even posted sign(s), too.*
The point here is that the owner gets first crack at his/her watch. **I get second ** – not some dubiously honest deskclerk, or manager, or janitor browsing through the lost & found drawer, or even the Goodwill store that may (improbably) wind up with it when they clear out the drawer every couple of years.
Should anyone doubt my veracity on this point, I recently found on the street a lady’s watch probably worth about $200. I immediately put a posting on Craigslist, and taped up about half a dozen signs in the vicinity – more trouble than most people in my neighborhood would go to. Got a couple of inquiries (including one from a guy who was convinced I was running some kind of scam) but none of them matched the watch I found. Now, could I have turned it into the local police precinct? Sure. Did I? No way! If the owner doesn’t claim it, I want my next girlfriend to get it, not the precinct captain’s.
If it had been $10 or $20 I would have less problem with you keeping it. Why? Take for example my watch.
My watch was a brand and type I wanted all my life but my parents refused to let me have it because it was somewhat expensive and they were convinced I would destroy it within 3 minutes of owning it.
Well, it was a luxury purchase for me a few years back, and it was almost discontinued…I bought one of the last ones! So it kind of means a lot to me.
you never know. One person’s trash is another another person’s treasure, and something that means little to you may mean a lot to another.
of course, I probably wouldn’t wear my nice watch to the gym. But you get my drift.
I think you did the right thing. There is no imperitive for you to hand it in straight away.
I would have been inclined to hang on to it and post a notice rather than hand it in anyway- I’ll bet if it isn’t claimed it will not be you who ends up with it.
Isn’t this a mite simplistic?
No distinction between telling your wife you like her new hairstyle, as opposed to having an affair? Never an appropriate application of “situational ethics?”
I freely accept the good doctor’s diagnosis that “rigorous honesty may not be my default setting.” But hey - at least I’m upfront about my dishonesty! Gotta count for something, no?
