Saturday, October 10, 2009

Free money?

I saw this at the place I do meditation sometimes in Bethesda. Apparently, someone dropped some money and the person who found it (rather than keeping it) put it on the bulletin board announcing where they found it so the owner could presumably reclaim it.

Since money naturally draws people's attention, I saw dozens of people look at the board and read the sign as they walked by. Anyone could have claimed the money and no one would have known it wasn't theirs, but no one did.

I am sure that buddhists have jobs and mortgages, just like everyone else, but none of them took the money for the simple reason that it belonged to someone else (or possibly they were born catholic and would feel guilty about it till the day they died and would burn in hell forever for doing it...Hi Father Caputo!). I remember once I was at a bar and a bartender gave me change for a twenty, even though I paid with a ten. When I returned it to her, another patron (in a douchebag shirt) said to me "if that was me, I would've kept it". I took one look at that ridiculous affliction t shirt and I knew that he would've. But even if noone else would know, I would. And I guess that makes a difference. It starts little by little and if you act like a low life in small things, then you'll do it with bigger things, and eventually you have a wardrobe full of skull tees, a faux hawk with a head full of blonde highlights, a drawer full of steroids and you're on Tool Academy and you wonder how you got there...

10 comments:

leslie said...

Or, even if nothing changes externally, you end up callous after you squish your conscious.

I bought 4 items at Target a while back, but they only charged me for 3. Didn't notice for nearly a week until I actually took the items out of the bag and looked at the receipt (I'm a little slow), but was back in Target that night. The guy there said that he'd never heard of anyone doing that before and that no one would know; I said, "I would."

Georgette said...

Ahhhh, how refreshing, to see a reason for faith in humanity once more.

Maybe we should award them the Nobel?

On another note-- Nice to have you back, HIN! Um, couldja keep it up now? There are those of us who live vicariously through your pain/pleasure with the home improvements.. the jits... the salsa...

Jamie said...

I have done the same thing at a bar before (gotten too much change and returned it) but if I found money on the street, there's no way I would do anything other than pocket it. But if I found money in a wallet with ID, or anything of value with any hope whatsoever of finding the owner, I'd do what it took to return it to it's owner.

The thing is, there's no way to ID the owner of the money on the street. And assuming the person who lost it had ANY IDEA where they lost it, or even realized they did, would they ever go looking for it? Would you suddenly realize you were a few bucks short and retrace your steps all day?

Putting it on a bulletin board is just silly. Someone will take it sooner or later and it won't be the "owner." I think the only reason you and others didn't is because it seems so awkward and odd. But if it was sitting on the ground under the bulletin board, instead of pinned to it with a note, it wouldn't still be there. Found money is found money - there's no guilt.

Anonymous said...

Thats better Ninja...

Meditation...like reflection?
Turning over a new leaf ?...
Yes,post more often...

Avocado said...

This is a cute story! I think it is because meditators are inherently honest. :)

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DIYOutdoorLiving said...

My friend called me one time and said she had found $200 on the ground in the parking lot at a local drug store. She called me to ask what I would do. I told her she should find the manager and say she found a sum of money outside the store and leave her name and phone number for the claimant, should they come asking about it. She gave them 7 days and said she'd consider it forfeited if no one called. Like many of the comments here had mentioned...no one came looking for the money. There's no way they could begin to guess where they lost the money.

new hidden object game said...

Niice story!

Alexa@HomeIdeaResource said...

What a great story! Thanks for posting!

Alexis said...

This is a nice, refreshing story. Don't run across humble, honest people too often. If it was your money, you'd be thanking this guy ;)
Thanks for sharing!