Well, to me, that depends. If your a billionaire, and have $10,000 in your wallet, that’s maybe not as much as a “reward” as taking $25 from a wallet from a guy who is on welfare and has mouths to feed. That’s why I asked, what price morality? In that culture supposedly (and I want to capitalize SUPPOSEDLY because that’s quite an inference to make about a culture) whatever is in the wallet is the reward; by that standard, then no one should carry any cash in their wallets, ever, which is also not realistic.
Very possible scenario but more info: I lost the wallet approx. 5pm Friday; I got the phone call from the library 1059am the next day. Not a lot of time for the wallet to change hands twice and then have the supposed Good Samaritan who found the cashless wallet to bag it up and rush it to the library. I suspect its one person who made the decision to take the cash, yet something in their soul told them to return the wallet, and for the benefit of the thread, isn’t that the more intriguing psychological profile?:D:D
I will today. Since the wallet was returned so quickly, and there has been no activity on my credit card statements which I have been watching like a hawk, I doubt they were used. I also needed one of my CCs for a BIG client lunch yesterday, so not having a credit card available to use was all but out of the question.
That’s an interesting question that maybe gets to the heart of the issue. I’m definitely a different person today at 50 than I was at 23----I have a job, a house, savings-----so while not Bill Gates I would have no need to keep the cash in the wallet. 23? I could barely make rent and was living paycheck to paycheck. I’d love to THINK I’d return everything back then, but was not put in that situation. Either way, the right thing to do is return the wallet with all the cash. If I found a wallet as a younger man and stole the cash, I am fairly certain I would look back on that at 50 as a shameful decision. If I thought it was OK when I was 23, that doesn’t make it the right thing as it ages over time.
This is part of the reason I’m intrigued by the “stole the cash, returned the wallet” dichotomy: it makes me think the person really needed the money, but they were brought up to do as little harm as possible, which lead them to return the wallet.–as a theory
Yeah, Im starting to explore “walletless” options after this incident. I just fear not having the card I need because I left it in the other car, and other complex scenarios.
Another interesting scenario. But imagine if you found the wallet with no cash, walked up to the victim and handed it to them, and they were maybe a little irrational ie the guy that lost the wallet is a Mafia Hitman that doesn’t care how he lost his cash, he just wants it back. Now YOU have the problem, if you know what I mean.