Today, while I was waiting at the bus stop. I was there for about 20 minutes. As usual, about 15 buses that I don’t ride pass by. Off one of the buses, disembarks a lady. All of a sudden she points at the bush next to me and exclaims, “Oh my god, there’s a hundred dollar bill!”
Yep, you read that right:
<font size=“7” color=“orange”>A</font> <blink><font size=“7” color=“green”>100</font></blink> <font size=“7” color=“orange”>Dollar Bill!</font>
I look at her briefly, then I look at the bill on the ground. Should I claim it as mine?
I hesitated.
Before she could ask whose it was; before I could snatch it, some other guy says it’s his. Of course it isn’t. (I should say wasn’t. It’s his now!) I saw him come to the bus stop; he was nowhere near the bill. Even she was suspicious.
I hesitated, therefore I lost it.
I could have used that hundred dollars.
(As I’m sure he is.)
Just tell me that I did the right thing.
To lying, cheating, stealing, and drinking.
Always lie to save a friend, cheat death, steal your love’s heart, and drink with good friends.
—*Madison Michele
*
In terms of your personal integrity you did the right thing. The alternative was to tell a lie to get money and that’s pretty clearly on the “bad” side of possible behaviors.
On a less comforting note it seems to me if the person who lost the bill was nowhere around then the money “belongs” to the person who found it – the lady. Instead it went to a person who was willing to lie to get money (See paragraph 1). Maybe you could have spoken up and stopped him. (Maybe not!)
But it all happens quickly. It’s easy to sit here and think about it slowly. You didn’t compromise yourself. You did the right thing.
p.s. I’m sure the lady is sorry she said what she did. She’s thinking, “Why didn’t I pick up the money and then say something?” You’re not the only one that would like to relive the moment!!
“The inability of science to grasp Quality, as an object of enquiry, makes it impossible for science to provide a scale of values.”
Robert Pirsig
Yes, you did the right thing. And the inner peace of knowing you instinctively did so is worth more and will last longer than a hundred dollars.
And if it makes you feel better now, think of how it could have gone. Suppose you quickly claimed the money was yours, but as you did so the rightful owner said the same thing. You would then have had to make the choice of either defending your lie to someone who knew you were lying or to withdraw your claim and stand revealed to everyone there as a liar. Imagine the embarassment you would have felt in either event.
Anyway, what’s wrong with claiming that bill ? I mean, the owner is gone (most probably), the woman who spotted it was dumb enough to make it a group session: the $100 bill is now fair game.
Well, gang thanks for te support. Just to answer some questions.
JBENZ: This ain’t wealth talking, If I wanted that bridge (to live under possibly), it’d be gone by tomorrow.
Jacq: There was a better probability that the hundred belonged to the woman getting OFF the bus than it did the man who ran out the bus shelter three feet away from me and the unnoticed bill.
To everyone: My heart said you did the right thing, but my head keeps saying “But it was a HUNDRED DOLLARS! Do you even remember what a hunderd looks like?”
Coldfire: Thanks for calling me noble.
To lying, cheating, stealing, and drinking.
Always lie to save a friend, cheat death, steal your love’s heart, and drink with good friends.
—*Madison Michele
*
Don’t look at it as losing $100. Look at it as gaining peace of mind. If you had snatched it and claimed it was yours, who knows what might have happened? And from the sound of it, you’d be feeling guilty now.
Yhave nothing to feel guilty about it, Sterling. The guy who claimed it (if he did indeed lie to do so) should be the one feeling guilty. Too bad there was apparently no way to get it back to its rightful owner – who is probably really upset
…but what are you supposed to do when you find a large amount of money in the middle of nowhere? Especially, if there’s no way to identify whose it is.
Leave it there?
Give it to charity?
Take it to a bank?
Put an ad in the Classifieds?
(found $100 Bill. Series 1990 Serial: J59484433K)
Use it to help pay down the national debt?
This isn’t nickles and dimes anymore. Someone is now $100 short.
There’s nothing wrong with taking the money, it’s the lying part that is morally problematic. If he had taken the money immediately, without ever saying anything, that would have been rude but not exactly morally wrong. But once taking the bill requires a lie, it becomes morally wrong. Of course, to many people $100 dollars is more important than being morally right.
I don’t know if it will make you feel better, SN, but here’s another way of looking at it: how long would it have to earn that money? One or two days? Suppose you could get out of a few days of work and still get paid, but you’d have to lie to do it. Wouldn’t you feel bad about doing it? Wouldn’t you feel better earning the money honestly? If you answered “no”, then I guess you should have taken the hundred dollars.
Figures.
