...opps, wait...You said you lost a hundred dollar bill. Nevermind.
Posted on 06/17/2005 4:03:51 PM PDT by No Blue States
As I pulled up to the post office 30 minutes ago with my family, I noticed a $100 bill just laying on the pavement.
I picked it up and got back inside the car.
The temptation of course was to keep it, but we decided to leave our phone number with the post office so if someone came claiming to have lost something they could get it back by describing it. (a $100 bill)
While waiting for my wife to come back from inside my daughter and I noticed a middle aged woman appear to be looking for something a few cars down. So we pulled up next to her and asked if she had lost something, she said she lost $100.
I handed it to her and told her i found it on the ground. She frowned and said a weak thanks, then got back into her car. It would be easy for us to think "you ungrateful ol bag..we should have kept your $100".
Doing the right thing is its own reward, but it would have been good for her to seem more grateful as part of the lesson my ever watchful 11 year old was soaking up. $100 is a big thing, at least to us.
But whats a really good memory worth? My daughter witnessed me, her dad doing the right on our Fathers Day weekend.
She was thinking free pizza and mall too so she wont forget it.
Thats worth much more than 100 to me.
What does this have to do with Free Republic? When deciding whether to keep the 100 bill I remembered a Free Republic thread about the subject of lost money and my decision then to try to give it back if I ever found lost money again. Then a yr later the test came.
Yes, I knew it was the right thing long before coming here...but before reading that thread and making the permanent decision to be honest next time...well we may have been on our way to the mall with a guilty conscience. Not to mention God watching us.
Sometimes the things YOU type here does have a positive effect on others.
PS: Please forgive the shameless self promotion, keep in mind I am otherwise a pile. And that FR is not my relgion but does positively reinforce it.
That's mine. Please give it back.
Good on you, mate! Good on you!
What was the serial number?
Wonderful lesson for your kids.
You done good!!!
LOL
Sez you. Whose portrait is on it? Huh? ;-)
A good reputation and respect are worth much more than silver and gold.
Can't remember. I lost it, so I can tell.
No doubt thunderstruck to the verge of speechlessness by your honesty.
good-on-ya!
Wait a mintue, was that post office in Texas? I just lost a $100 bill in front of a post office in Texas.
can't
That was the right thing to do...
Guaranteed your Father in Heaven was watching...and took note
of your pleasing Him...regardless of any human on earths approval..
Pretty good opportunity to please your Heavenly Father on Father's day..that was a nice present to Him..
May He bless you and your family this weekend...
And thank you for the story...
LOL. Okay, who's picture was on it?
You passed!
It is amazing how many people don't see other people as people but as pieces of the environment. The lady who lost the bill is typical. But, if we can do the right thing, the whole of society is improved by that much. Maybe it is a losing battle, it seems that way, but the day nobody cares any more will be the last day and the end of the story for all of us.
...opps, wait...You said you lost a hundred dollar bill. Nevermind.
The only thing I can add to joesnuffy's post is BUMP!
Have a great forever!
With only a week to go, I was down to less than $2.00 with no food in my apartment. I went to the supermarket to see what I could buy for that. I happened to look down and saw a $10 bill on the floor.
I normally would have turned it in but not this time.
That is a true story.
Of course you did the right thing and no good deed goes unrewarded. I helped a lady on the side of the road one day to get her car going, this was after a hard day at the plant. Went to my favorite watering hole and put a quarter in the poker machine and won $500. Say what you want but what goes around comes around. You give evil you get it back, you give goodwill it comes back. That is a natural law of humanity.
Sucker! No, I'm kidding. You probably would have felt guilty if you did not do the right thing. Happy Father's Day!
Way to go!
True, but also it's an important lesson for her to do the right thing...even though, sometimes, it will not be appreciated.
I returned a sports bag once. I also lost my watch around that same time. Anyway, 8 months later I get a box in the mail with my watch. They had given the 'defective' bag to some employee. Anyway, he heard some alarm going off in his closet, found the bag, then the watch. Then he went out of his way to find out where the bag came from, tracked me down, and sent me my watch. He relayed a story how someone had found something he lost and returned it to him. I know I too will try to do the same.
Good job with the $100
May you be repaid ten times over.
Just remember, you'd much, much, much rather be rewarded in the afterlife for such acts of kindness/honesty/generosity/etc. than in this one.
About 5 years ago, I was leaving Home Depot and some spiked hair, dressed in baggy black clothes, chains, etc. older teens were ahead of me. One guy put his change in his pocket but a $10 fell on the floor. I picked it up and gave it to him. He said something like, "I can't believe you gave it back," and walked on.
The point is not that I gave it back, but the tone of his voice, which sounded like, "You moron! I would have kept it!"
Interesting experience.
I lost a twenty someplace. Could you find it for me? :)
Somebody wanted you to have that. It happens.
I found money outside a Revere (MA) nightclub early one morning back in 1979. I was just a kid back then and got up early for my paper route. I was walking down the street and saw a $10 bill swirling in front of me. As I bent down to grab it, I saw another $10 bill against a fence. Then another. And then another. All told, I found about $140, all in $10 bills. That was a lot of money to me back then. Wish I could say I did the noble thing and took it to the police station. But I blew every dollar of it on Kiss and Aerosmith tapes and Kelly's fried clams.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa!!! Where is this again?? I just came back from the Post office and noticed I was $100 short! I`ve been looking all over for it, and you give it to a near death waste of food old bag? This bag is a thief and she must immediately be hunted down and beat until the location of the funds are revealed! Get back to me when this is done!
That is the mind set of the libs and probably the same as this old lady. Honesty just does not reason in their mind, they can not comprehend the idea.
Perhaps she didn't believe that you found it and thought that you gave her the $100 (out of your own pocket) because felt sorry for her. Or maybe her weak response was simply because of the embarrassment of it all.
Kiss and Aerosmith? That is a crime. Has your hearing improved or are you still stone deaf?
you done good with that money.
Good for you. You did the right thing.
This reminds me of two things:
1. Congressman JC Watts (R. Oklahoma) said, "Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking,"
2. The alleged quote from Winston Churchill :
Lady: (as Winston Churchill held a door open for the lady to pass) "Sir, there is no need to do that just because I am a lady."
WC - "Madam, I don't, I do it because I am a gentleman."
A hole in your pocket.
My hearing hasn't improved any but at least I'm no longer a 15-year-old kid from 1977!
I think if you find a $10 and don't know who dropped it, you keep it. Most people don't come back looking for it. If you turn it in to the cashier, who knows what they are going to do with it. I think I draw the line somewhere. Probably over $20. Of course, for some people $20 is a lot. I suppose hanging around for a while seeing if anyone comes back and looks around is about all I would do.
When I was little, I was coming home from school with my older brother. I found a dime and told him we should try to find out who lost it. He's still laughing 50 years later.
On the other hand if I found a bundle of cash on the side of the road with no ID implicating the owner(over 50 K) I think I may start my own safety deposit box untill someone comes foreward.
Or it was the old woman medicine money, she is barely making it in social security, and only later realized how grateful she should have been.
You never know, maybe Satan asked God if he could test me to prove I would fail.
Another woman was walking right toward the 100 and would have no doubt seen it and picked it up, would she have given it back? Were we placed there by God to make sure the woman got her money back?
The mind reels at the possibilities but its such full payment to look honest and upright in front of my daughter. On Fathers Day too! I would pay $100 gladly for that.
A job?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.