Every day, R & I dump all of our change into a jar. It accumulates over a month or so and then we count it out and roll it. We have gotten into the habit of taking it to our local country store as they are always in need of change.
Yesterday, I took the rolls to the store and purchased some gas for the lawn mower. After I had paid for the gas with a roll of quarters and a roll of dimes. I got the girl to change a roll of quarters and a roll of nickels. She gave me the money and I left.
When I got home, I realized that she had given me a twenty dollar bill and two ones instead of a ten and two ones. I ended up with ten dollars more than I should have had. Now had I noticed it at the store, there would have been no question in my mind that I would tell her and give the ten back but now I was 5 miles away.
I am ashamed to say that we had to think about it for a couple minutes as not only was there the expense of driving 10 miles round trip but also the time involved. Happily, it didn’t take us long to decide that we would run the ten dollars back to the store. We did it for several reasons other than that it was the right thing to do.
There is no doubt in my mind that the $10 shortage would have caused the girl at the store problems and she probably would have had to pay the shortage. No matter how much we need the money, it isn’t fair to have someone else pay our way. Then there is the less obvious reason and maybe this is just superstition but we both believe that keeping the money would have cost us more at some point in time.
Have you ever noticed that when you do something good, someone, sometime, will do something good for you? And if you do something wrong, then that will also come back to you. My grandmother used to say that life was a circle and you got back what you gave, usually not from the same person that you gave to but in some other way.
My question is what would you have done? Have you ever had an experience like this?
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Cindy: Like you I would have taken the change back. I tend to count my change at the till though, so hopefully I could have caught the error before going home. I love how you save your change BTW.
Fox, I also usually count my change and I believe I did so yesterday. Perhaps because my 5 year old grandson who never stops asking questions was with me, it just didn’t register that $20 was too much for a roll of quarters.
I’ve had this happen several times. Usually, I return the money. But I still vividly recall the two times I did not. Both were times when I was incredibly broke (once, in college, and once about 15 years ago when I had two emotionally disturbed children with psych bills running $1600 a month). Suffice to say, poverty did NOT make me a more honest person. But that I still remember that with shame does, I think, say something.
I have returned it, and would do so again in a heartbeat, should it happen again. The only reason I need is that it is NOT my money. Period. To keep it would be dishonest, in my opinion, and I could not live with knowing I had kept it.
I don’t however have a problem with picking up pennies and dimes off the parking lot
I’d have returned it. It’s the whole Karma thing……
It is a Karma thing and I think that is generally meant by the whole circle of life thing. Keeping it would have been dishonest but I know there are a whole lot of people that would have rationalized it by thinking something like: It’s her job to make sure you get the correct change… would she have tracked you down if she had kept $10 too much? etc, etc.
I would have returned the money too
But I would have rung them and told them and just returned it next time I went – so no extra trip and the girl isn’t in trouble. Win-Win
This totally reminds me of Family Man with Nicholas Cage where the liquor store clerk tests a customer by giving her too much change back. He ended up being an angel.
Noblejoker, I could have called them but I was not sure if the same girl was working or if I would still have the money the next day. Better to get it done and over with….
Yes and I would have done the same thing because it is the right thing to do.
I really don’t know what would I do, but… I think that You have done a good thing. I also think that I never stole anything in my entire life and the longer I think about it, the more sure I am, that I would give back the money. But it is easy to say that I would to the same. Being in such situation is totally different thing. Nice to know that You are so honest.