I found $50 in the parking lot at the grocery store yesterday. Two twenties and one ten. I had just loaded my groceries in my car ($48.39) and was starting to walk across the parking lot to go into the pet store next door.
I saw what I first thought was a piece of folded paper in the flower bed next to where I was parked. Curious, I walked over to see what it was and Glory Be it was MONEY! OMG! Once I realized what it was, I looked furtively around to be sure no one saw me pick it up. *** sssssneaky **** It’s my PRECIOUS! Okay, I know that statement was a little freaky. Anyway, there was no one nearby so I wadded it up in my hand and walked nonchalantly along until I entered the pet store.
Safely in the store, only then did I count it and it was fifty bucks. I found a five dollar bill once but never this much. I lost a hundred dollar bill several years ago, tried retracing my steps, all to no avail. It was gone, lost to me forever, found by some lucky son of a gun. By losing that hundred, I might have answered someone’s prayers, enabling them to buy milk for their baby, to stop the incessant crying. It might have bought them that much needed hit of heroin to stop the shakes or maybe a cheating husband found it and paid the hooker on the corner. I wonder how much heroin costs? Or hookers? But I digress…
There was no way to discover who lost it and I admit it, I didn’t try. There are so many stores around where I was parked all within walking distance. Who knows how long it had been there, partially hidden among the flowers, waiting to be found by lucky ole me.
Soooo, back to my question. Any ideas on what I should do with the $50 I found? Pay a bill? Throw a party? Give it to charity? Spend it on my dog? Put it back where I found it? Will I be cursed if I spend it? Bad karma and all that? Or was it karma at work that enabled me to find it, partially repaying me what I lost before?
What do you guys think? And what’s the most money you’ve ever found?
Oh, shit! Have you seen some money that I just lost? It’s green, rectangular, and has a picture of a dead white man on it. Do let me know!
Oh, yeah, the most money I’ve ever found… just a few dollars at a time, here and there. One time I found a ten in a churchyard. It was a sign. That somebody had lost their money in a churchyard.
Bolding mine. It sure sounds like it would have been easy enough to go into the grocery store and ask if anyone had reported losing $50. Or the pet store. That could have been somebody’s grocery money for the week. Why didn’t you even try?
Trying to find the owner of such a small amount is an exercise in futility.
When I was a kid I found $5 in a nickel arcade. When I turned it in to the desk, they set up a machine (my choice) for free play. I chose Rampage! It had a line behind it and all three positions always manned, so they let me cut line, too.
A few years ago I found $20 in the middle of a cross walk, right after learning I didn’t have the budget to get my dad that bottle of Grey Goose I wanted to for Fathers Day. That worked out swimmingly.
I found about $300 in cash in one of those vinyl bank envelopes a month or so back in my gym bag. It turned out to be from the same bank that the gym used, so it caused a lot of alarm at the time, but it wasn’t the right account.
I did find the owner. It was my sister, who had borrowed my car awhile prior to that. :smack: Never quite figured out how it made it into the bag, though.
As I stated in my OP, “There are so many stores around where I was parked all within walking distance.” I only specifically named 2 of them. Surrounding the parking lot where I found the money is Safeway, CVS, Pet Store, Dry Cleaners and 2 restaurants to just name a few. I was parked in the very center of the parking lot surrounded by about 12 different assorted places.
Are you saying that I should have gone into each place of business, found the management to tell them I found $50 way out in the parking lot in the flower bed, money that could not be specifically identified by anyone, any of whom could have said “Oh, that was mine or a lady told us she lost that.” And then I was to hand it over where it would probably have been pocketed by said management since there was no way to identify the money in the first place?
I found a $20 at Trader Joes once a while ago. Thought hard about keeing it because we were pretty broke. Instead gave it to the panhandler at the corner of the parking lot, old guy.
In the next few days we got 3 bits of great financial news, and while of course they aren’t related, my superstitious monkey-brain can’t help but feel as if they are.
I found ten bucks once, when I was 9. That was an incredible amount of money for me; my mom made me take it to school <I had found it on the way home from school, no where NEAR the school, but my mom wanted to make sure I hadn’t stolen it, I guess> and give it to the principal. After a week nobody claimed it, so it was mine! I have no idea what I did with it.
A year later, I lost 10 bucks somewhere on the way to school…
Even at that age, I shrugged and hoped someone was having fun buying their beers with it!
I didn’t know karma from koalas at that point, but ‘what comes around, goes around’ seems to be an ingrained thing.
One more thing, needscoffee - I worded my OP in a humorous, fun way for** entertainment purposes** only! My first thought when I found the money was “Oh no, somebody lost their money.” I didn’t really look furtively around to see if anyone saw me pick up the money. I really looked around to see if there was anybody else walking nearby that could have dropped it. No one was. My next thought was “There’s no way I can find the person that lost this money. Too many stores and restaurants.” “Anybody could say it was theirs and how would I know if they’re telling the truth?”
I felt bad for the person that lost it. That’s why I still have it and I’m still thinking about it. I KNOW how it feels to lose money. It ain’t a good feelin’. So no, I didn’t try cuz it would be a waste of time.
One of my friends was walking in the mall one night (early 1980s) and she found a bank night deposit bag lying on the floor. She walked down to my little T-Shirt shop, asking what she should do. It had quite a bit of money in it. We zipped it back up and took it to the night deposit slot and dropped it in.
On the flip side of that and right around the same time, I made a night deposit for a little T-Shirt shop I worked at when I was 18 (in the same Mall). The deposit was for around $700. A couple of days later the owners called me asking me why I didn’t make the deposit. I said I did. I walked down to the bank and the teller there told me that she got the bag for that night with the deposit slip in it but no money. Lucky for me, the owners trusted me and knew I would never take their money. A few weeks later that same teller was fired for stealing. Small town and everybody knew me and they knew I wouldn’t steal that money. So it had to be her. They started watching her closely and finally caught her at it. Whew!
As far as trying that hard to find who it belonged to…My gut says that the likelihood of finding someone who’d lie to get it is higher than finding who it belonged to, in that situation.
My other gut says that someone who’d lie to get it probably really needs it; my liver is such a softie.
No sorry, cash flying free with not even a rubber band and a note or something? That’s what is called “free money” and there’s no moral obligation there at all. Now, a wallet with $50 is cash is another thing entirely. I found an envelope with a $500 un-addressed MO in it, but the Bank that issued it that day could and did ID the customer who had purchased it.
This a a bogus attempt at a guilt trip or a holier than thou posting.:mad:
Now sure, sometimes it is good Karma to do a random act of kindness with said “free money”, but trying to imply the OP has some moral obligation here is bogus. How’s the loser going to ID it? Green, pictures of dead Presidents?:rolleyes:
