Finding money: a windfall or theft?

[cannabis_flower]

https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/96983060

Is it unethical for someone to keep money they find in a purse at a thrift store?

Ms. Cheap responds to a reader who questioned shoppers keeping loot that belongs to someone else.

I got quite the response to my recent column on the 99-cent Goodwill outlet store — was it right for a shopper to keep money she found in a handbag in a bin at the store?


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So what would you do?

11 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Buy the purse and keep the money
	7 (64%)
	Donate it to charity
	2 (18%)
	Turn it in to the police
	0 (0%)
	Take the money and don't even buy the purse
	0 (0%)
	Depends on how much money
	2 (18%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. More information is needed.

Would the store be able to identify the person who gave them that handbag? I suspect not.

[cannabis_flower]

14. This was actually a friend of mine a few days ago

He bought a backpack at Goodwill for $2. After he bought it, he took it home and there was a small zipppered pocket inside that had about $600 in it.

He went back to Goodwill and they told him there was no way to trace who donated the backpack and it happens occasionally and that he should keep it.

I told a friend of mine and she said he should turn it in to the police. I didn’t agree. If there was no way to identify the donor I felt it would be like buying a vase for $3 and finding out it was worth $600.

To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t trust the police to turn it over to me if the owner wasn’t found. When I told her Goodwill had told him he should keep it, she said they were idiots and he shouldn’t go by what they said.

I might agree if it was more money, for example, I read about someone who bought a sofa and found $43,000 in it. In that case the grandfather of the people who donated it had died suddenly and never told anyone about the money.

[msongs]

2. handbag for sale or one left behind by a careless shopper who left it accidentally nt

[cannabis_flower]

15. In this case.

It was a backpack for sale at Goodwill and had $600 in an inside hidden pocket.

[Haggard Celine]

3. I doubt the store would try to find out who.the donor was.

Somebody would take the money if I didn't. I don't trust the manager or the police to keep it. Seems like a windfall to me.

[cannabis_flower]

16. Same here

[markie]

4. moral dilemmas...

if there is any chance of knowing where it came from, I would pursue that... if there were no chance of knowing, I would take it and see it as a sign to do something good with the money... I could not see it as a personal gain, merely as an opportunity to "spread the wealth"

[rampartc]

5. these 2 events occured within a few hours

1. at my local convenience store, on top on the stack of newspapers, i saw a wallet. no one else in the store. i handed the wallet to the clerk, a guy i saw there all the time, and did not think much more about it.

2. later that same morning , at wal mart, i picked up sole money from the floor in the produce aisle. i did not see anyone drop it and there was no one else nearby. 2 $100 bills that someone probably needed for their groceries, but who? i put the money in my pocket and went about my business.

maybe i should have tried to find the wallet owner on my own? maybe i should gave turned the money to the store management? "will the shopper who dropped money in aisle 3 please come claim it?" i don't know. but too late to clange in both cases.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Don't lose any sleep over it. People with $100 bills generally aren't worried about grocery money.

I turned in a found 50 one day in a department store. They were clear, it's yours if no one claims it. I told them to give it to charity. Didn't even give them my name. Did it go to charity? Who knows.

[Tanuki]

11. My mom found a $20 bill at a basketball game. When she tried to turn it in

at the office, the woman told her their policy was to turn it over to the local police and strongly implied that the owner would never be found and that the money would just "disappear." My mom was on her church's liason committee for the local homeless shelter and donated the money. She and my dad took long walks for exercise in their retirement and they sometimes spotted change on the ground. My mom called it "pennies from heaven" and always picked it up and put it in a jar at home and would put it in the collection plate when it added up a little.

[AnnaLee]

6. Assuming the owner cannot be determined.

The original donation was to Goodwill, a charity. If you take the money then you should turn around and make a cash donation to Goodwill of the same amount (or more if you choose). So I selected giving it to charity in the poll.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Perhaps the donor left the money there on purpose.

They donated the purse to a charity, and may have thought that most people who bought stuff in 99 cent thrift stores could probably use the case. Or, perhaps some other generous person slipped it in the purse later, for that same reason

[janterry]

9. depends on how much money

incidental change or a small amount of cash - I'd keep it because no one would come forward.

a large amount of money that someone would clearly miss - I'd report that to the police.

[marble falls]

10. If it ain't yours, it ain't yours.

[we can do it]

12. If they buy the purse it becomes theirs.

Most thrift shops have drop offs that don’t ask for who is donating.

[marble falls]

13. That's one way of looking at it. At any rate, if it's not yours, it's not yours. Maybe karma ...

... is the only 'law' attached, but if it ain't yours ...

[cannabis_flower]

17. If you bought it

It could be said it was yours.

If you found it on the street I would say it’s not yours.

[marble falls]

18. If you bought it with all three parties in the bargain knowing what it was: maybe ...

But i don't think the lady who left money intended to make someone else's day, I'm sure the shop didn't mean to sell one the money at discount, and I assume one didn't know the money was in the purse when they bought it.

If it's not yours, it's not yours.