Poll: You find a wallet.

[RetiarySword]

So I was just in the laundrette drying some clothes before I settle in for the night. When I arrived home I wandered into my room then threw my wallet, phone, watch and keys on the desk in my normal fasion. I then went downstairs to prepare a beverage.

I then had a sudden panic of leaving my wallet somewhere, as it wasn't on my person. Talk about short term memory fail..
I then remembered that it was on my desk and I hadn't left it in the laundrette.

I then started thinking about what would of happened to that wallet if I left it in the laundrette.

Say you found a wallet somewhere, in the park on the shelf in a shop or where ever. It has a drivers liscence, a credit card, a few club cards (You know GAME, HMV, loyalty cards really), and about.. say £40 in it.

What would you do with that wallet?

When other people I have been with found a wallet, they do the basic thing of going through it, I don't see it as right, I mean its someones personal property after all. Then they check for cash and either take all of it, or just a 'finders tax'. I can't see that as just.

When I find wallets all I do is search for maybe a phone number or address to return it, I have no business going through it. I mean if I lost mine I would be up the creek as it has my drivers license, cash, credit card and university cards in so I couldn't justify taking anything out of it.

If say someone did return my wallet and all of the money and cards were there I would maybe give them a £5 reward, basicaly a 'Good karma' reward.

 

[JRCB]

I would return it. It's not mine, and I'm not desperate enough to steal.

 

[El Poncho]

Since it's in a wallet I will know where to find them so I would return it but if it was a bit of random money flailing about , it's all mine

 

[Hoppetussa]

Return it. I don't need to steal.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

I guess I'd give it back. I don't think I'd steal it.

 

[Cargando]

If I kept the money, I'd feel too guilty about it afterwards. I'd just return it and hope they are nice.

 

[JaneDoe]

I would want to take the money then dump the rest.

BUT I would be too paranoid that someone would see or it would be some hidden camera prank.

So I would hand it in to the appropriate place.

 

[Birras]

I would use the driver's license to track the person down, return the wallet and save their phone number. I would then call them starting two months later, doing so once a week, to deliver criticisms to their life based on what I could gather from the contents of the wallet until a restraining order is filed. Then everybody wins.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

You go through it to find out who it belongs to, so you can return it.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

I would return it. I wouldn't be able to stop thinking that bad stuff would happen to the wallet's owner because they didn't have it. I worry too much, I swear to god I do.

 

[C117]

If the wallet has something in it that makes you able to identify the owner, I'll return it. If not, I think I'd take it for myself (unless there was, like, 50000 bucks in it. In that case I could just nick a few hundred and nobody would notice)

 

[jpoon]

I'd return it, though your cash has magically disappeared somehow.

 

[Cakes]

I'd definitely take the money, but send back the rest, since your driver's license isn't terribly useful to me.

 

[Trivun]

I'd use anything like a driver's license or whatever to find the address of the owner, and return it completely untouched. If nothing like that is there (i.e. it's only money or loyalty cards and stuff), then I'd hand it in to the police. If they can find the owner then they obviously get it back, if they can't then I think (at least in the UK) the police allow you to keep it (after a month or something I believe), in which case I'd be £40 up (or something like that ).

That's the moral solution, at least for me.

 

[Blitzkrieg8]

If the wallet has something in it that makes you able to identify the owner, I'll return it. If not, I think I'd take it for myself (unless there was, like, 50000 bucks in it. In that case I could just nick a few hundred and nobody would notice)

Who Carry 50,000 dollars in their wallet?

 

[Aedes]

A whole wallet? I would return it intact. I'm too paranoid with my own wallet and I would like to get it back with everything in it when I lose it.
Now a small ammount of money lieing alone somewhere... that's a little harder. Mostly becouse anyone could come and say "it's mine!".

Actually, I even found a Nintendo DS this year with everything. A cute bag to keep it, a cable for transfers, I guess, and the DS itself.
God, I felt the taint. But no, I returned it. I would feel ruined if I lost anything like it.

 

[Jedamethis]

Stealing is baaaaaaad.
I don't like taking money, who knows, the money they have in their wallet might be all the money they have

 

[Abedeus]

Depends. If there are valuable personal things there (like a driving license or I.D. cards), I return it. If there is no way of telling who's wallet it is, I don't.

That being said, I once found a nice silver watch, returned it to the owner who was looking for it on the street... And got a chocolate. A God damn chocolate. Hey, great, you just had your $150 watch returned and I get a damn chocolate for $1.

That was my lesson about not helping people - they won't thank you even a bit.