If you find a small amount of money, what do you do?

Recently I found 50 cents at my supermarket. It’s not a lot of money, but it got me thinking about found money in general. What’s the proper thing to do?

I’ve talked to many people and it seems the exact circumstances are important. Here are some of my favorite reactions. I’d like to know how you handle it.

Give it away, always?

Money you find is a gift, so why not pass it on to something worthy? One of my friends is very generous with money he finds. To him, it doesn’t matter if he finds $1, or $10, or even $100, the money he finds is marked for church or his favorite charity.

My friend is a relatively generous person. He’s given 10 percent of his gross income to charity from his very first job. Now naysayers are quick to point out that he’s someone that can afford to give. He comes from a distinguished family and has never felt a real bind for money. And that brings me to what the naysayers suggest.

Finders keepers?

What’s wrong with keeping money you find? That’s just good old capitalism, these folks say. It doesn’t matter that finding money is pure luck. The point is you were in the right place at the right time. And if you don’t take it, someone else will. It’s like the board game of Monopoly. When you draw the “bank error” Community Chest card, you take the $200 and go on your merry way.

But there are moral dilemmas even here. At what point is the money yours, and how much should you do to inform others?

My friend recalls an experience that raised questions. He spotted a $20 bill on the ground while waiting in line at a busy lunch place. The bill was a few spots ahead of him in line so he couldn’t grab it right away. And he didn’t want to attract the attention of the people around him and risk them grabbing the money. In the end, he carefully played it safe and took the bill.

Now it’s entirely possible the bill belonged to the customer just a few spots in front of him. Did greed keep my friend silent?

He feels no regret about it, however. He works in the financial district in San Francisco and suspects the money was lying on the ground for a while, from a customer that had already left. If he had spoken up about the bill, someone else would have lied and claimed it.

My favorite advice–enjoy your luck

I think it’s best not to take things too seriously. I don’t go out of my way to find money, but I now accept it when it comes as a surprise, a lesson I learned from a friend in college.

We were driving home from a burger joint when my friend started smiling. After counting his change, he discovered he had benefited by $10 due to a cashier’s math mistake. It started a discussion about all the ramifications. Should we go back and return it? A big discussion ensued to occupy the drive.

My friend was going to keep the money and he gave a good justification. It is a fun thing to find money. And people are usually very careful about counting money, so it’s a rare event that is based on luck. And if you’re worried about fairness, then think about the found money as payback for all the times you’ve been overcharged. So relax, take the money, and just enjoy your luck.

(All of this changes if you find a large sum, in which case you’re often required to report it to legal authorities. Here’s an interesting story about someone struggling with finding a wallet with $1,100).



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  • Brett Myers

    This reminds me of a social experiment/prank by Rob Cockerham of cockeyed.com. He created the experiment after an experience posting a Found Cash ad on Craigslist. A series of prospective “owners” of the found money wrote to claim it, each one providing identifying details given only to the previous claimant. Intrigued, he posted Found Cash ads in several cities just to see what happened.

    http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/found/found.php

  • Aaron

    It’s one thing to find money lying around, but another to keep money when a cashier gives you too much change – that cashier will be responsible for that money at the end of the day, and if you notice it, I think you have a responsibility to return it, otherwise that person could have their pay docked, or even be fired depending on the job. That’s too much bad karma for me.

    If there’s a reasonable guess as to who the money belongs to, I think you should return it. If it’s impossible to know, then it’s alright to pick up and dispose of as you see fit.

  • http://patf.net/blogs/index.php?blog=2 Patrick Farrell

    Here’s my feelings about finding money on the street. Get the money in your posession. People will be more honest if you’re in a power position concerning the money.

    Now, I think the amount of effort you need to put in to discovering if someone dropped it is proportional to the amount of the money. $0.50? Ask the person standing right next to you. $100, you have to widen your search.

    I think the same goes for driving away from a cashier. The interesting thing about that situation is the rise in the cost of gasoline. All our old equations where fuel was negligible suddenly have a new variable :) .

  • Christina

    I agree with Aaron…I think keeping money the cashier gave you if they gave you too much is different from picking money up off the ground. If I were still at the store, I would tell the cashier and give it back. (If I were home when I realized the mistake though, I’ll admit, I might not).

  • Murat

    In the cashier case, it seems that appropriate action depends partly on your belief on survival of the fittest as well. If you would come up with the idea ‘let math-strong cashiers rule the trade’, i don’t think anyone would counter that.

    Personally, I wouldn’t take any money/thing that I don’t need. Why the greed anyway?

  • http://www.mindyourdecisions.com/blog/ Presh Talwalkar

    Brett Myers:
    Thanks for sharing the link about found money. Those stories are great. Yet it begs the question how that person is so good at finding the money…

    Aaron:
    I do wonder about how cashiers of big stores get disciplined. Registers usually do not balance due to honest mistakes. I think stores take action when they think someone is stealing or has been grossly incompetent…

    One time a waiter gave us a wrong bill for $20 instead of $100 and we made sure to correct it. I am pretty sure that would have been docked from her pay.

    Patrick Farrell:
    Great point about gasoline! It would not be socially optimal to spend $11 on gas to return a $10 note…

    Christina:
    It is funny how ignorance would prove to be a strategic advantage. We feel bad because we noticed the error and didn’t report it–had we never counted the change, we would have never known and just continued in bliss.

    Murat:
    Haha–I like the interpretation with survival of the fittest. I also agree that motivation is a key point–it’s greed that’s problematic with finding money.

  • Anthony

    A friend and I recently found 150$ in a parking lot as we were leaving a Wal-Mart. This was quite an exciting sum, as we are broke college students. After waiting for about ten minutes to see if someone would come looking for it, we decided against turning it in figuring that an employee would likely just pocket the cash, and we went home.

    We debated for a solid hour about what to do with the money, and after a while settled on the option of donating it. But then I had a strange urge, and as a joke, suggested we go back to the Wal-Mart. So we did.

    As soon as we pulled up to the spot we found it, out came two melancholy looking individuals. “… you don’t think… ?” I asked my friend. He rolled down the window and asked if they were “missing anything.” Immediately the girl said that she lost 150$ — and so we gave it back to her.

    She started crying and wanted to give us half of the money. The man with her was smiling from ear to ear. We declined her offer stating that it was no big deal, and went on our way.

    Talk about bizarre. With all of the variables at play, I’m to this day in awe of how that played out… but I’m forever thankful that it happened the way it did, because the sheer joy and relief on that woman’s face gave me and my friend one of the best feelings in the world.

  • http://www.mindyourdecisions.com/blog/ Presh Talwalkar

    Anthony:
    Great story, and I’m impressed with what you did. Sounds like you really made someone’s day–a much greater reward than pocketing a few extra bucks and knowing the loss probably hurt someone else.

  • Tyler

    I loat over $4,000 cash. A better explanation is it was stolen from me but basically someone ‘found’ it. There was also a check inside the envelope made out for a larger sum that not only has my full name but also the company that I work for that issued it to me. I’d love to have it back.

  • Christy Andersen

    The only time I’ve ever found cash was when I went to the bank machine and found that someone had left £10 in it. It was in a busy shopping mall and the people who had left it were actually walking away from the machine at the time – I could see them. I called to them, followed them still calling – and then they turned around a corner and I couldn’t tell who was who anymore.

    I went back to the machine, got my own money and waited for about half an hour for them to realise and come back. No sign. I can’t even remember what I did with the money – it probably went on coffee for Mum and I later on that day. Can’t say I didn’t try, though.

  • Kevin

    Now the dilemma with Karma is, how do you know having the cashier wasn’t Karma getting back at them for a wrong doing and/or good Karma coming your way? Karma is not some mystical force… Say you gave a homeless man $100 to get out of the cold, instead he goes and buys a gun and kills himself. Does bad Karma come back at you? Is this your fault for trying to help another human being? Is Karma transferable? If you lose money and someone who needs it, finds and uses it to help them pay their rent, is that good Karma onto you for loosing money? LOL Having said all that, there is nothing like giving something back to the person whom lost it. There is also nothing like finding money to help you eat when you had nothing. It’s possible that if you return the money to the person who lost it might help you in ways you could never imagine, and it’s also possible that the same person could take their money back and walk away with nothing more than a thanks.

  • jim

    I found a $50 note beside a footpath at my University. I wondered what I should do.

    I ended up going to the nearest reception area – “Commerce Central” and telling the lady that if anyone comes in inquiring about lost money to call me on my mobile phone number.

    I currently still have the money. I think if no one calls within about a week, I’ll donate it to a charity.

    As for the register mistake, I’m a firm believer that you should give the money back. I’ll never forget when I was working at the registers of a local supermarket, and a customer returned a $50 note to me, saying I had given her too much cash out and that she didn’t want me to get in trouble.

  • Henry

    i found 5euro its mine muhahahahahaahahhaahahahaah

  • Hitler

    ALAN said its his buts he is a kunt=]

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