The weirdest thing happened to me today and it left me facing somewhat of a moral dilemma.
I was in Boston at a very crowded CVS drug store where I noticed an ATM machine off to the side of the registers. I walked over to the machine and inserted my card and proceeded to make a withdrawal when I glanced down and noticed a $20 bill sitting in the cash dispenser of the machine. Since my withdrawal was not yet complete, I knew the $20 was not mine. I looked around the crowded drug store to see if anyone was waiting to stake claim to the money, but no one was near the machine I was using. No one was even looking in my direction so I finished my withdrawal, took my money and the additional $20 and stood off to the side to ponder my options. They were:
- Wait a few minutes to see if the $20 bill's owner would return to claim it after realizing it was gone.
- Give the money to CVS management so that they could return it to the owner IF they came back to claim it.
- Pocket the $20 and walk away.
I thought about whether or not karma was testing me (I am a big believer in karma) or that it was just plain luck. I thought about my kids and what I would have done if it had happened to one of them and not me. Whatever the reason, I was faced with making this decision.
What do you think I did?
10 comments:
I would have waited a few minutes to see if anyone came back.
I would have waited a few minutes too - and if no one showed up, I would have just taken it. I am sure CVS would have done the same thing had you given the money to them. As you can see, I am destined for hell.
well i think you did the right thing which would have been to take the money and run.... who goes to an ATM withdraws 20$ and forgets it...
yes my little chickadee's. I did just that! (it paid for my parking) but I didn't feel too great about it at first. After I waited for a good 7 or 8 minutes I figured the manager at CVS would do the same thing. Stuff like this never happens to me. Please dont tell my kids.
I think you did the right thing. It was nice of you to wait around for a few minutes, just to be sure. But if no one came back for it soon, then they probably never came back for it. Think about it. If you realized, 6 hours later (or even 1 hour later) that you had left $20 on the ATM, would you ever think, in a million years, that it would still be there? Of course not. You'd write it off to stupidity and thank the karmic beings for giving that $20 to someone who needed it more than you did. (I mean really, if you don't notice pretty much immediately that you left $20 at the ATM, you must not need it very much!!).
My husband once found a $100 bill in a bar parking lot at 6 a.m. while he was out for an early morning bike ride. Talk about great luck! I personally have never found more than $10.
I would have also waited, then kept it.
You're all too kind. I would have waited a minute and then taken off. People need to be more responsbile for themselves. It's not like there was the option of the money or a piece of toast coming out of the slot. You're there for cash, duh, how could you forget to take it? Finders keepers...
Seriously? I DEFINITELY would NOT give it to the CVS management, that's for sure! I'm with pretty much everyone else... wait a few then take it.
I am such a FREAK about double checking to make sure the ATM doesn't 'scam' me that I really feel it's pretty careless of the person who didn't notice they left it. Apparently the $20 didn't mean that much to them, whereas, every PENNY counts with my broke ass :)
At least you waited. If you had given it to a manager, how would the person who left it there really identify that it was their's? Finders, keepers!
Basically, you did the right thing, Can. I mean besides feeling a bit guilty about taking the money, you were left with no other options.
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