How Much (if any) would you reward this person?

[Zen Toombs]

Says the person who has probably never had to struggle to have enough to survive.

Says the person who was homeless at sixteen and spent five years in minimum wage jobs before training as a nurse, one of the most under-appreciated and under-paid professions you're likely to find, actually. But you keep making your assumptions, ey?

I'll see what I can do. ;P

Apologies for getting your situation wrong. I'm sorry for what you've had to go through, and I'm glad that you've come out of it decently well.

Yeah, in an ideal world Honesty should not need a reward, and everyone would be honest. But the world is not ideal, and people suffer and starve and do what they must to survive.

I still can't justify theft as a means to survive.

Okay, I can understand and respect that. But if someone else had what I needed for either me or my child to survive (like food or water or medicine) and I had no other way to get it, I would take it. Taking the high road is nice, but it means nothing if you're a corpse. To be moral is a luxury, and one that some people just don't have.

It would be nice if that wasn't the case, but it is.

And now for something completely different:

Looked it up and it seems like what I have been told about this was inaccurate or that either the person who told me or I misunderstood along the way. The finder can refuse to return the item unless he/she is satisfied with the reward offered, but 10% is the upper limit of what can be demanded.

In a way I lied by accident here. I apologize for the confusion caused.

No worries man, it happens. Anyways, I'd still like the citation for your information, as it sounds interesting.

 

[Yopaz]

Says the person who has probably never had to struggle to have enough to survive.

Says the person who was homeless at sixteen and spent five years in minimum wage jobs before training as a nurse, one of the most under-appreciated and under-paid professions you're likely to find, actually. But you keep making your assumptions, ey?

I'll see what I can do. ;P

Apologies for getting your situation wrong. I'm sorry for what you've had to go through, and I'm glad that you've come out of it decently well.

Yeah, in an ideal world Honesty should not need a reward, and everyone would be honest. But the world is not ideal, and people suffer and starve and do what they must to survive.

I still can't justify theft as a means to survive.

Okay, I can understand and respect that. But if someone else had what I needed for either me or my child to survive (like food or water or medicine) and I had no other way to get it, I would take it. Taking the high road is nice, but it means nothing if you're a corpse. To be moral is a luxury, and one that some people just don't have.

It would be nice if that wasn't the case, but it is.

And now for something completely different:

Looked it up and it seems like what I have been told about this was inaccurate or that either the person who told me or I misunderstood along the way. The finder can refuse to return the item unless he/she is satisfied with the reward offered, but 10% is the upper limit of what can be demanded.

In a way I lied by accident here. I apologize for the confusion caused.

No worries man, it happens. Anyways, I'd still like the citation for your information, as it sounds interesting.

Well, not sure how helpful it will be, but It's all from this place [http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-19530529-003-0.html].

 

[Xdeser2]

However you look at it, in the end the Cabbie did a good deed and got 2000$ out of it

Turns out human decency does exist in small doses

 

[WaReloaded]

I would have given him between $10,000-20,000, his honesty would not go unrewarded.

However, what if the taxi driver was a recovering heroin addict or something to that effect? A large sum of money might tempt the driver to relapse, or it could even have the opposite effect. Would you still give him such a large tip/reward knowing this?

Just a little food for thought.

 

[TitanAura]

Seriously, simply possessing so much money shouldn't automatically turn someone into "the bad guy" when this isn't a story that needs one. He won it, it's his, end of story. The cab driver could have potentially lost his job for trying to keep that money and was entirely in his right mind to return it. In fact, I'm certain he returned it EXPECTING to get a nice hefty tip for doing so. It's human nature. What amount that turned out to be is less important than the fact that a $2000 tip is substantial and he got a just reward for his honesty.

This is a win-win situation. I'm certain everybody walked away happier for having gone through the ordeal. Stop being such a Debby Downer!

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'd probably give him at least 10k. Having said that, if I were in the position of the cabby, I wouldn't really be expecting anything as a reward.

 

[mrhappy1489]

It's hard for me to say, initially I thought 10K, but then decided to be far this guy went the effort of tracking me down and returning the money, so 50k seems far. Plus he is just a cabbie, I think 50k would be just what he needs in this current economic climate.

 

[TitanAura]

However, what if the taxi driver was a recovering heroin addict or something to that effect? A large sum of money might tempt the driver to relapse, or it could even have the opposite effect. Would you still give him such a large tip/reward knowing this?

Just a little food for thought.

You almost sound like you're trying to rationalize why he doesn't DESERVE a tip. Of course he damn well deserves it!

Even if you KNEW the guy was a KKK-Neo Nazi-Communist and was planning to use that money to fund.... evil-ish stuff. That's none of your concern. A good deed is a good deed and should be rewarded as such regardless of their karma meter.

 

[Semitendon]

I smell a fake.

Okay, let's say you win 250k in a casino. And. . . for arguments sake we'll pretend taxes don't exist.

Red Flag 1. I admit that I don't know a lot about casinos paying out high winners, but it is reasonable to think that a casino would give the option to have your winnings given to you in check form, if not direct deposit into an account of your choice. But this guy evidently chooses to take cash, which no level headed person would ever do.

Red Flag 2. Let's assume that you are forced to take the winnings in cash. The first thing any rational person would do is head straight to a bank. Electronic transfer of funds allows you to move your money from one institution to another, without ever running around with wads of cash in your pocket where it could be taken from you or destroyed in some untimely accident. This guy goes to an airport instead. Because nothing says good idea like taking fistfulls of cash in a case into the busiest clusterfuck of a place with thousands of people moving from one location to another, and thousands of cases that are routinely lost or stolen.

Red Flag 3. The winner suddenly forgets that he won a quarter of a million dollars. The only plausible explanation would be that the winner is so wealthy that winning 250k to him is like finding a penny on the sidewalk to you or I. I would imagine that the average person would not let that case out of their hands, let alone out of their sight, regardless of all other situations with the exception of a life threatening event-no such event was mentioned in the article.

Red Flag 4. You are the cabbie, after endless days of making next to nothing, having people treat you like crap, you find a case of cash in your backseat. You've probably taken dozens of customers in the course of your day, and you have no idea who this case belongs to. It's cash, and unless it belonged to the last person you drove, it would be easy to explain that the case was taken by another customer, which is an untraceable solution to the problem. Be that as it may, I will concede that this is the weakest of the red flags, as it is defintely possible for someone to simply return the money.

Three strong red flags, and a weak fourth. I judge this story to likely be a fake, it's not outside of possibility, but very unlikely.

As to the main question, I think that if I had somehow ended up in a situation like the one described, I would likely give the cabbie 10k. A sizable sum that would have virtually no adverse affects when the taxes were taken out, and still leave me considerably in the financial black.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

2K is fine by me, I mean hell the turn in is self reward, and 2k is more money then I would of made that week. Only a greedy douche would expect a 5%+ reward IMO.

 

[WaReloaded]

However, what if the taxi driver was a recovering heroin addict or something to that effect? A large sum of money might tempt the driver to relapse, or it could even have the opposite effect. Would you still give him such a large tip/reward knowing this?

Just a little food for thought.

You almost sound like you're trying to rationalize why he doesn't DESERVE a tip. Of course he damn well deserves it!

Even if you KNEW the guy was a KKK-Neo Nazi-Communist and was planning to use that money to fund.... evil-ish stuff. That's none of your concern. A good deed is a good deed and should be rewarded as such regardless of their karma meter.

I was merely trying to provide some food for thought/come up with an additional problem, something with some real weight. I'd definitely tip the driver, I jut thought it'd be interesting to see if people would still tip if they were suddenly made aware of the driver's drug habits. As I said, just some food for thought.