h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the one very short car drive I made yesterday the DJ wanted to know how people would react in two different scenarios.

Scenario one – you are a cleaner with an airline and you find a stash of gold bars behind a toilet in the plane you are cleaning.

That’s a no brainer to me, I wouldn’t even consider keeping them. The DJ said he would hand them in, but first he’d fill his pockets with them and walk around a bit, just to see what it felt like

Scenario two – you’re out walking your dog by a river and you spot bank notes to the value of £60,000.

This is a much harder one. Obviously morally your first instinct should be to hand it in to the police, but I’m not sure that would be mine. I’d think about keeping it. It’s a life-changing amount of money. And that amount isn’t likely to have been lost innocently. But then reality would kick in and I’d wonder if the notes were marked in some way. Possible scenarios where I’m found out would cross my mind, and before long I’d find myself at that police station. In fact, I must confess that a lot of the trouble I’ve stayed out of in my life has been due in no small part to a fear of discovery.

Both of these scenarios actually happened this month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25013393

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-25008898

So what would you do?

Deb

Time to stand up and be counted.

If I found any item of value that could be traced to an owner, a distinctive piece of jewellery, a wallet, a wage packet with a name on it I would immediately hand it to the proper authority, I feel it would be WRONG to hold onto it.

If in the circumstances you describe, I would definitely hand it in to the appropriate authority, not because it would be wrong to keep it (though morally it still would be) but because it might be DANGEROUS. It must be someone else's and in the circumstances it was found, possibly a dangerous someone else.

However, if I was wandering through the fields and found an ancient half buried box full of pre revolutionary gold ecus, I would be sorely tempted to move it into my vegetable plot and sell them to antique dealers, a few at a time. I might STEAL them, they are owned by the farmer not me. The only thing that might hinder me is that at my advanced age I have all the money I need; although a few hundred thousand extra might get me a dinner date with Kate Beckinsale but is even that worth the RISK?

So that leaves me admitting that I wouldn't retain anything I found mostly on the grounds that it was dangerous or I couldn't be bothered with the effort of disposing of it. I am a despicable person.

I suspect you're more honest than despicable.

Why can't I read the word despicable without hearing "dithpicabul"?

Deb

I'd hand it in, regardless. Can't stand the idea of feeling guilt. That nigthmare I had definitely 'vaccinated' me from ever doing anything that would leave me with a feeling of guilt.

Which shows, I think. People tend to trust me with the oddest things. I've often called it looking 'harmless' but it's a bit more complicated than that.

I look trustworthy. And harmless. And I am.

I think in both cases, I'd hand it in... I say 'think' though, as it is sometimes difficult to k know how one would react, for real, in a given situation...

No hesitation on my part, I would hand in to the Police.
The gold find in the story linked to smacks of an inept attempt at smuggling and the cash find could also be proceeds of a criminal act.
Either way, definitely not a case of 'finders - keepers'

I'd turn it in--if I found £60,000 around here, I couldn't spend it anyway

But I'd turn in $60,000, as well. (Or $97,242, which Google says is the equivalent to the original amount.)