(While walking through a park, you notice a wallet lying in the grass. It
piques your curiosity, so you walk over to take a look at it. Inside the
wallet are several business cards, some ID, and some very large dead
presidents! There is $5000 dollars in the wallet, all in unmarked $100s!)

(do you return the wallet in its entirety?)

38 responses total.

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.

I wouldn't keep any of the money, since I would always be feeling guilty
about it.  But what sort of business cards in it might determine whether I
would return it to the person  or to the police.  50,000 dollars isn't
exactly an amount most people can afford to carry in small change.

 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/

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I'd return the whole package.  Otherwise, it's stealing, and I couldn't
ever justify that to myself.  Unless, of course, I had no money and my
child was dying of a disease which could be cured for $5000 ...

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

I'd return the whole shebang, if I could reach the owner.
(There must have been something odd about the money storage,
maybe it was loose or almost pulled out, otherwise I wouldn't
have counted it)

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'.

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

I would probably return the wallet w/ money included, if I 
wasn't in a dire financial situation.

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.

no

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

I'd return the wallet, and if I didn't get a reward, I'd feel shitty but
shrug and walk away.

I didn't find #1 distressing in the main -- while I would retrun the 
money regardless, I would linger more on some of the conditions mentioned.
But why is gender relevant?  *That* is sexist garbage!

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?

Of course I would return in with everything in it.  Who knows, maybe
they would give me a reward for returning it, but I wouldn't count on it.

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?

I would assume the owner was either full of s--t, or that somebody else
had taken out the cash before I found it.  In either case, it would be
pretty hard to prove that Ihad been the one to take it.

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?

(good question, Mary!)

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.

Yeah, I agree with brighn.  I would be too paranoid about getting caught
to take any, no matter how much it was.

If I found a wallet with a small amount of money and nothing else, I would
be more inclined to keep it on the grounds that it wasn't worth trying to
locate the owner.  If it had ID cards or anything in it, I would then be
able to locate the owner, and consider it very importantto give it back to
them, everything intact.  Then again, if there was really a lot of money
in it, I might hand it over to the police rather than give it back.  I
really can't see any lititimate reason for anybody to carry around
$2,000,000 in cash.

(how does one get rid of $1,000,000 in cash, anyway? do you just take it
to the bank as if it were just $100?)

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Yup, it sure does.

Option 1: Contact Police regarding the incident and inquire as to wether the
person has filed a report or has been the victim of a crime. Surrender the
wallet. Option 2: (most people) Take the cash and return the wallet and ID to
its owner anonymously. Option 3: (some people) Take the cash and burn or
destroy the rest. Option 4: (criminals) Keep it all and make use of it all. Me:
Option 1 or 2

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I suppose that a question of one's faith in human nature. 

I think most people would pick option 1, too.

I would not be likely to contact the police.  At least here, they don't tell
you about reports of crime so easily, and would be most likely to tell you
to turn in the wallet without giving you any info.  As police are human, I'd
be more concerned that *they* would steal the money.  I'd call the owner and
turn over the whole wallet intact.  

Remember, more credit cards can mean more debt, not more wealth!

I'd keep the money and throw the wallet in the nearest dumpster

I'd turn the wallet and all contents in to the police. Except any pictures.
I'd find out who the people were in the pictures, and stalk them for years
(unrelentlessly).

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Of course! I'm a very caring, no-nonsense stalker. In-and-out, don't be too
abrasive, make your point, then go home. 

Since there is ID in the wallet, I'd have to return it. I'd go to my favorite
restraunt, call the person and order my favorite meal. When they show up, I'd
invite them to join me. It be neat meeting someone this way. When the meal
was finished, I'd give them the wallet, with the cash still inside. Maybe they
would by the dinner maybe not...that wouldn't be important to me.

Well... it's just a wallet.. perhaps it was lost... after it was STOLEN!  I'd
contact the owner and tell them i found a wallet... and ask them to describe
it and guess at the approximate amount of money in it.. and then return what
was lost.

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