I was planning on taking a short hiking trip when I noticed my account was overdrawn. I rushed my change jug to the Coinstar so I could still go hiking, and to avoid any overdraft fees. I received a voucher for $147.55. After redeeming my voucher, I eyeballed it and was confident all the cash was there. About a mile down the road I counted the cash. She gave me $197.55; an extra $50 dollar bill.
Now I’m pretty poor right now. I buy gas $5 at a time, need work on my car, just overdrew my account etc, etc, etc…but I gave the $50 back to the cashier.
It would never even occur to me to keep it. Why would I want to get someone reprimanded/fired? The only reason I didn’t want to turn around was because I was running so late on my hiking trip(from overdrawing my account).
I’m not religious, so I don’t care about god getting mad. I don’t believe in karma. I don’t believe it will come back around(don’t really care either). I don’t want credit for it because it makes me feel like an attention whore. I don’t think I was under an ethical obligation, it was her mistake. I don’t care about taking advantage of a $50 mistake by a giant mega-corporation. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over the decision either.
The poll is yes or no, but please explain your religious/ethical motivations.
Now, when I was at KMart years ago, buying a radar detector that should have been $80 and it rung up as $20, I pointed it out the the cashier twice, she shot me down twice and insisted it was correct, and I didn’t argue after that. Paid the 20 bucks and left with my prize.
I would have returned the cash (maybe not immediately if I had driven quite a ways when I noticed it, but at some point). However, if I was flat broke and the $50 meant the difference between eating that week or not, I would be sorely tempted to keep it. Although I would probably “compensate” for being overpaid by buying the groceries at that store.
As for why, it’s because I know that keeping it means the store will eventually make up for it by raising prices and I’ll end up “paying for” that $50 many times over for as long as I shop there.
This is a different situation from money (or any valuable) I find that does or may belong to an individual. I make every effort I reasonably can to find the owner, or I turn the property over to the police and then post a “Found” ad in the local paper or on CraigsList. Why? Because I know what it feels like to have lost or had stolen from me stuff that mattered a great deal to me, so I’d like to help someone who may be in a similar situation.
If I notice at the store? You bet, and I’ve done this more times than I care to count. (Seriously…doesn’t anyone know how to count anymore?)
If I only notice long after I’ve left but it’s someplace I frequent, I return it next time I go back. I’ve done this as well - and given the amount of surprise and gratitude I get when I do so, this must be pretty rare.
If I won’t be going back anytime soon (if ever), I probably won’t make any effort to return it, but will probably be extremely generous with my charity donations for a while.
I would return the money. You have a car, you can afford gas, you can pay for a hobby (a luxury). They are a lot of people poorer than you. I don’t believe in karma either. I’m just not going to play into your pitty party. It’s just dishonest.
If were me, I’d return them as soon as I got home from hiking.
Turn around and return it right away. I believe very firmly in honesty in business dealings. This has been reinforced and emphasised by Talmud study, which values honesty highly and considers fraud morally wrong. I wouldn’t say “I believe in honesty because the Talmud tells me so”, but I do think I think about it a lot more in more ambiguous situations, and consider it more strongly when trying to do the right thing than I would otherwise. I consider a lie by omission to still be a lie, and passive theft (which is how I would characterise keeping the £50) is still theft. I think I would have come to those conclusions more slowly, or hold them less firmly and act on them less immediately, than I would have if I hadn’t spent as much time arguing about Talmud with people.
I’d return it, definitely. And have done so in similar situations.
Mainly because my conscience wouldn’t let me profit while the clerk may get into trouble or even lose her job.
And for a self-serving reason too: I’d feel badly about myself and guilty if I did. Doing the right thing makes me feel good about myself and improves my mood.
If Id’ noticed at the time I’d have returned it. At a later point, no. I’m not going to try to justify it - I know the right and wrong of it - but I just wouldn’t care enough to go out of my way to return it.
A cashier should carefully count out such money. I always count out anything over 20.00 in change twice or three times before handing it over. They didn’t pay attention, and neither did you, so you both were at fault and the error was made in your favor. Correcting such errors are subject to the time of transaction. You can be damn sure if you suddenly drove back the same amount short they wouldn’t give you more cash without a huge fuss and fight. Your ethical obligation ended at the door of the store.
I have a sort of amount of money/amount of bother ratio. For $50? I’d return it to the store within 24 hours. If I notice in the parking lot that my $7 jumbo pack of paper towels on the bottom of the cart wasn’t rung in, I’ll walk it back in. On the other hand, if I figure out after I got home that the clerk only rang up one $2 jar of pickles when I left with two, I am not going to worry about it: I didn’t intend any dishonesty, and frankly, if I realized they charged me for two and I only got one, I also wouldn’t bother.
And if you are on such a tight budget for gas and things, why do you even have one that has that much in it? I can barely get my change jar over $10 because I am constantly cashing it in (good thing about working retail is there is always a need for the coins in my jar or the bottom of my purse.) and spending it on essentials.
Another vote for “Would immediately return it at the store or down the block but probably not get around to it once I was a significant distance away.” No malice or greed in there, just a mixture of busy schedule during my uptime and laziness during my downtime.
I feel like I would have been lazy too…but for $50 I’d probably have returned it. I was a cashier once, and it sucked to come up even a few pennies short at the end of th eday. $50 would have reduced me to tears.
Less than $10 I probably would have been too lazy to go back, though.
