response 1 of 38:

Jun 26 23:49 UTC 1994

Ah!  But there is more to it than that!  Is this person age 20-25, 50-60,
over 60?  Are the business cards for the persons multinational oil company
or lawnmowing business?  Is it a woman or a man?  Are there pictures of a
wife and kids or just snapshots of Rush Limbaugh or Donald Trump.
I would take these things into consideration.  If I suspected for a moment
that I had the wallet of a man, age 40-60, who had *more than one* credit
card, I'd take cash and (of course) mail the wallet back.  But if I found
the wallet of a 25yr old guy or old woman who had photos of her dog
Sparky inside, well, I'd make sure personally that the wallet got back,
money included.
The loss of $5000 to some people can be either a minor annoyance or, to
others, a crushing blow.

response 3 of 38:

Jun 27 19:56 UTC 1994

 yes. I have no problem with returning wallets and other things. If I
could not locate the person immeadiatly, I'd use the business cards
and other info to find the person. If that failed, I'd turn it into
the police, and if no one claimed it in 30 days, the money would then
be LEGALLY mine. But still I'd place an ad in the paper/

response 7 of 38:

Jul 3 15:21 UTC 1994

I'd give the money back, but keep the wallet.  :)

response 9 of 38:

Jul 6 05:49 UTC 1994

I would return the money.
As a man 40-60 with more than 1 credit card, I must tell you all that I find
response #1 very distressing. I am afraid it is a common attitude to feel
that while some can ill afford it, that it becomes OK when the victim
can bear the loss. Why not treat everyone equally?

If Donald Trump unintentionally dropped a $100 bill in my lap, I'd still
return it. Now I'll admit that if I needed that money to eat or feed
my family I might feel differently, but I'm pretty sure I'd feel that
way regardless of the unwilling 'donor'.

response 11 of 38:

Jul 6 16:58 UTC 1994

Not to mention the taxes needed to pay to replace them.

response 13 of 38:

Jul 13 00:52 UTC 1994

I'd return it.  If it were MY wallet, I hope all you guys would return it
to me!  Maybe the person who lost it is now in a dire financial state as a 
direct result of losing that wallet.  Yeah, I'd return it.

response 15 of 38:

Nov 11 02:12 UTC 1994

As the wise man used to say: "Possesion is 9/10 of the law." Who has the
walletnow??

response 17 of 38:

Nov 13 22:16 UTC 1994

If there was sufficient ID to return the wallet, I would do so.  I have
heard (more than one) stories where wallets returned via the police with
money were forwarded to original owners without money...  So, I am not a
big fan of the police option - I would suggest a charitable donation if
cash could not be properly returned to owner.

For those who would keep the cash:  would you claim it as income on
your tax return?

response 19 of 38:

Nov 17 03:52 UTC 1994

I'd return the wallet, with the cash.  But what would *you* do if the owner
then claimed that there had been $10,000 in the wallet?

response 21 of 38:

Nov 19 12:29 UTC 1994

I'm curious as to whether the amount of money in the wallet 
would make it any more likely it would be returned, all funds
intact.  Would anyone be more likely to return it if they were
maybe talking $10 but if there was $2000 at stake a little more
tempted to keep it all?  Do our moral values have a monetary
threshold?

response 23 of 38:

Nov 19 17:11 UTC 1994

I wouldn't take it all, I don't think, but the more money there is, the
more tempted I might be to take some of it.
$1,000,000 in cash (to get extreme) -- now there would be a temptation.
OTOH, I would worry about it being blood money, or drug money -- and I 
wouldn't want to get involved with that at all.