I think it’s probably fair to say that at some time or another we have all come across money that rightfully didn’t belong to us. Perhaps we found it on the street, or a shop assistant was kind enough to give us too much change.
Whilst it has to be said that such situations vary, personally speaking I’m never quite sure what to do. Keep it and treat myself, or do the supposedly right thing and hand it in. It also goes without saying that the depth of these feelings is very much dependent on the amount of money in question.
Now imagine if you can that you are a refuse collector. And just to make it even harder, Japanese. Give yourself a Japanese name if it makes it any easier. How about Ken for the boys, and Hiroko for the girls? All set now? Ok. One day you are working as normal, when you come across an ordinary looking bin bag. But inside is a cool 28,000,000 Yen (138,000 Pounds). All in crisp – and presumably untraceable – new 10,000 Yen notes. That’s an awful lot of money, and up to now only you know about it (and presumably the person who left it).
What do you do?
And before you make the decision, here is what that amount of money looks like when it’s invitingly laid out on a table.
Go on, admit it. You’d keep it wouldn’t you? Or at least some of it (like 20,000,000 perhaps!). Surely?
But not so the 60 year-old man who found that exact amount of money on Monday, in Saitama prefecture. He handed it in to the police. All of it!
I’ll admit there’s a lot to be said for being honest, but sometimes….
billy says
…my first thought would be keep it…and then it would do my head in that one day someone would come looking for it…does he get a finder’s fee or a chance to keep the money if no-one claims it?…
…’cos in the end it all depends on the “who” and this much money in a bag is drug money isn’t it – and I really wouldn’t want them to come looking for it…
…and in the same day, sainsbury’s under-charged me and my kebab shop owner gave me change for a tenner when I’d given him a fiver…with one I pointed out the mistake with the other I went back into the shop and bought another 6 cases of wrongly priced beer – gotta be done :^)…
Lee says
That’s the thing isn’t it? I wouldn’t think twice about walking away from somewhere like Sainsbury’s. In fact I’d quite enjoy it. But a small business is a different story.
Where that money came from I don’t know, but I’m guessing you’ve got it right. Gangster linked anyway.
He willl get a percentage of it if nobody claims it, although I don’t know exactly what percentage. No doubt it will still be a tidy sum.
I’ve spent all night rummaging around in the bins near my place, but alas to no avail.
Jeff 1971 says
I’ve found $20 before in a parking lot and pocketed it. That amount would be way too small for anyone to trace, and anyone I attempted to turn it into would have surely pocketed it themselves. If I go through a checkout at a grocery store or fastfood restaurant and the cahsier accidentally hands me a little too much change, I do hand it back because the cashier is responsible for the money in their register at the end of the day. A few cents or dollars short could cost them their job, and that’s not worth it to me. The most I have been honest about was when I purchased a few money orders and the cashier accidentally missed one of my $200 money orders. I asked, “Are you sure about that total?” I’m sure she would have been fired for that one. But a bag full of supposedly untraceable money in a trash can? I have to be honest. It would be mine, and I wouldn’t make a peep about it to anyone, except for a couple of very close family members.