Are you an honest person?

JBuk

JBuk

JBuk

Soldato
Joined
28 Nov 2002
Posts
11,292
Location
Cumbria
I've just opened my mail and one letter contained a rather sentimental 60th birthday card to some guy from his mum with £40 inside, when I checked the envelope the address was similar to mine but it's a place a few minutes drive away. I popped round to the correct address and gave it to the guy. He was very thankful for my honesty.

I also found a wallet a few years ago with a significant amount of cash in it, I managed to track down the owner and get it back to him.

I know lots of people out there would have pocketed the cash and kept quiet but I would feel guilty and ashamed of myself.

So anybody else done anything similar or have you gone the other way and kept the cash?
 
My conscience wouldn't allow me to keep a wallet or card like that so I've always handed stuff in (to the police if I can't locate the owner).

I'd probably think twice about it if I found a large, dodgy-looking stash of cash that's likely to be ill-gotten, though.
 
I would have given the card back and just last week I informed someone walking in front of me that they dropped a £20.

For some reason though, people take me the wrong way. Just the other day i found a blokes car. I was on my way to returning it but then got arrested and detained for 20 hours. They let me go but i'm not sure if they will still arrest me.
 
No, not really.

Malevolence said:
I found a wallet a while back. It was just sitting on a wall next to a bustop, it had just shy of £500 in cash and little else bar a couple of credit cards and debit card which, strangely, were all in different names. There was no driving licence or any other form of identification at all, just the three cards in different names. This was at silly o'clock (around 03:30) on a weekday and the town centre was dead. There was literally nobody in sight, on foot or in a car, and it was deathly silent.

Yoink.
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I have always returned or handed items in that I've found.

I like to believe that doing something good will have a knock-on effect.
 
In the birthday card scenario with the age and knowing the address was just round the corner, i would have done the same.

But the last time i found a purse, i did take the £20 note out and stick the purse and credits cards in a Post Box nearby !
 
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With something identifiable, like a wallet or letter, I would give it back. If I just found a bundle of cash, I would keep it.
 
I will gladly lie myself out of trouble but I'm not a thief. I certainly wouldn't keep a wallet or not say anything if I saw someone drop a note in front of me.
 
I'd certainly do my best to get the cash (or similar) back if I had an address or something...

Not necessarily a corroborating story:

Years ago on the way into reading festival I found a weekend ticket on the floor, luckily it had the guys name on it - started shouting and after checking his ID passed it back.. then I found £50 on the floor later on - shouting "who's £50 is this?" seemed stupid - it would belong to about 200 people. Decided it was Karma, bought a hat and a create of Stella.

So depends, I suppose - mostly honest I reckon!
 
Regardless of honesty or dishonesty I don't believe in gaining at someone else's expense (as realistically possible) so would make an honest effort to see it got to the right person.
 
You have to be an utter scumbag to not hand it in or attempt to find the person if there's some form of ID there.

I do however contemplate how far honesty actually gets you, it seems to work against you now if you're too honest.
 
The enjoyment of seeing it get back to the right person would be worth a lot to me. I always hope that people take my honesty as an example and think twice next time but as I get older I get more cynical.

I'm always shocked at how out for themselves people can be . There are people I work with who I know would say it was their fault for putting the wrong address on the card, bang £40 quid for me no second though. :(
 
Ayahuasca said:
You have to be an utter scumbag to not hand it in or attempt to find the person if there's some form of ID there.

I do however contemplate how far honesty actually gets you, it csn even work against you.
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Yeah - above honesty what concerns me most is that as little as possible I inflict my will on someone else and especially never for personal gain at their expense.
 
I have found loose cash and pocketed it. As above, shout out who's tenner is this and everybody around will claim it.

A wallet or something with ID would hand back every time. My wife lost her purse a few years ago, nothing much in it, maybe £30 and cards/driving license. Got a call from the bank a few days later saying it had been handed in, everything was included.

It's just the right thing to do.
 
JBuk said:
I know lots of people out there would have pocketed the cash and kept quiet but I would feel guilty and ashamed of myself.
?
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They are called scumbags.


Fair enough keeping a random note that you find on the floor with no way of tracing the owner but with examples like yours yes i would 100% return them.
 
Cash on the floor nope.

A wallet stuffed with cash, yes. A card with £10 in yes. A person dropping a fiver will be called back.

I think I'm honest :)
 
If the owner was easily identifiable (ie theyd just dropped it or in your letter scenario) then yes i'd return it.

But i have had scenarios where its not practical, for example i bought a jacket at a car boot sale for a fiver and having drove the 20 miles to get home i found a tenner in the pocket, i did keep that, although in fairness it was over so i had no way of contacting the original owner, and i figured it was his mistake for not checking the pockets before selling it.
 
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