Honesty poll

SantaHoe

luckat wrote:

Interesting that when people *talk* about what they'd do, they mostly say "I'd give it back", but when they *vote*, they tend to vote "No"!

Well I voted no, because the poll question was very specific... I wouldn't bother handing everything I find into the Garda station... certainly not a small amount of cash which would be next to impossible to return to someone... which is really what I had in my head while reading this thread.
Although thinking over it, I'd say there are certain things that I would hand into a Garda station, like if I found a passport, drivers license, medical card or handbag with no forms of address inside... a set of car keys, etc.
Generally, I don't pick up and take away with me things that I know aren't mine, no matter how lost they look... so the items above would probably be still sitting there in a puddle where I stepped over them

I haven't found very much money in my time, only the odd manky folded-up £5 note that a hundred people have walked on and didn't notice.
Things like that I count as luck and accept it without guilt.
I think the same would apply for amounts up to ~€100, anything more and I'd start thinking about the owner.
Anyone else have these moral lost-cash limits?

I dropped a tenner out of my pocket at the ATM a few months ago and the woman behind me was nice enough to bring my attention to it... I'm sure countless others would simply have stood on it until I left
I guess these things are easier to do when you feel that the person you're doing it for would do the same for you.
In that case I'd have done the same for her or anyone else... and tbh I don't think it would have mattered how much money it was, since I think seeing someone dropping it is a far cry from suddenly finding it several hours after the unknown person has left... theft as far as I'm concerned.
It's nice to see the decent side of people innit?

luckat

New question: if you saw a tenner on the street and picked it up and pocketed it, and then discovered that you were on TV, on a Candid Camera type show, would you feel comfortable about it?

therecklessone

Can I ask you a question?

You find a €1 coin on the street. Do you hand it in to the Gardai?

What if it was a 10c coin?

Pet

If I found cash lying on the street, say a tenner or 20 or something, and I didn't know who owned it, I might keep it. The last time it happened, I found a tenner, but it probably would have brought me no luck so I gave it to the first box shaking charity collector I saw.

Anything else, like walkmans or cameras, I would hand into the garda station. If it was a laptop or a phone I'd try and find the person first.

I don't think I'm special for doing this, but I wish more people would do the same. Things work so much better when everyone is honest.

impr0v

As a counterpoint to the heart-warming stories of unbridled honesty, myself and a mate found a wallet on the street while students, i.e. perpetually broke. The wallet had about 40 quid in it and a host of cards, particularly student cards, the guy that owned it went to the same college as us. Our intention was to take the 40 as a finders fee and hand the wallet in anonymously so that he wouldn't have to replace the cards. However, on further inspection, the guy had kindly included a pin number for his atm card in the wallet. Coincidentally, it was the week the grants had come through.....

..I mean if someone is stupid enough to keep a pin code in their wallet despite all the warnings to the contrary that they receive with the code, then surely it's the responsibility of society at large to educate him as to the error of his ways?

He obviously, like us, didn't get the grant, but there was 90 quid in the account, which we took and split, along with the forty. He didn't get his cards back either, as the risk of getting caught was not something we wished to take, so they ended up sleeping with the fishes.

I'm not overly proud of it. If I found a wallet today, with a pin, I'd probably check in case it was Denis O'Briens or Michael O'Leary's, but I'd give it back, cash and all, as I don't need it. The guy who owned the wallet, he was down 130 or so, and his cards, which i'm sure he got over after a brief period of kicking himself. However, any time he gets a pin number in the post now, I'm sure he memorises it immediately and incinerates the slip.

lodgepole

impr0v wrote:

..I mean if someone is stupid enough to keep a pin code in their wallet despite all the warnings to the contrary that they receive with the code, then surely it's the responsibility of society at large to educate him as to the error of his ways?

That's one of the most knackery things i've ever heard. I'd probably do just as you did, pocket the forty and leave in the wallet. But emptying a bank account and then passing it off as being some kind of lesson for him to learn is just bad form.

impr0v

Well that statement was meant to be kinda tongue in cheek. It was obviously bad form to empty the bank account.