Did I sin?

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bacon_man

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Recently I bought something at the store, the lady at the counter gives me $10 in change instead of $5. I start walking to the door when my mom notices this. I turn around to give it back, but she walked away and I couldnt see her anywhere. So we left. Did I sin by keeping the money? If I did, how big a sin was it?
 
bacon_man said:
Recently I bought something at the store, the lady at the counter gives me $10 in change instead of $5. I start walking to the door when my mom notices this. I turn around to give it back, but she walked away and I couldnt see her anywhere. So we left. Did I sin by keeping the money? If I did, how big a sin was it?
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just give it back to God in the collection basket 😉
 
No sin here 1) there was no intent, and 2)common mistakes are just that common mistakes, no one is perfect her nor your mistakes constitute sin
 
bacon_man said:
but did I commit a sin by keeping it?
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No, returning it, at least offering to return it is better. Since you never intended to have money which should have belonged to the store there is no sin. Similarly as any business/people make errors small errors as this often cost more to correct than the $5, so often managers often say please keep it as a gift and please come back as a customer. I do agree with others if the money bothers you give it to the poor or the church.

btw-from a legal prospective you are under no obligation as they controlled the error.
 
It sounds like you didn’t try very hard to find the clerk - any clerk. The sin would be in deliberately keeping it at this point. Putting it in the collection basket doesn’t make any sense since you need to restore the money back to the original owner. Mail them the money, return it when you’re in that neck of the woods again or call them and tell them what happened and what they want you to do about it.

In moral theology making restitution or restoring ill-gotten goods sometimes allows for the money to be given to the poor (not the Church) in cases where you would otherwise incriminate yourself, the owner is unknown etc and this would be done in the name of the person who’s goods they were originally (ie. if you stole five bucks from you buddy Jack then Jack moves away and you have no way of restoring the money to him you can make a charitable contribution to the poor in Jacks’ name). I think this is where the erroneous suggestion of putting the money into the collection basket came from but it doesn’t apply in this case and you should never take it upon yourself to apply this concept when it’s a matter for the confessional and what the Priest tells you to do.
 
Well, we walked a short distance and she was gone. We were in a hurry, and it was a Wal-Mart, if that helps any. I didn’t have much time to walk around and look, I turned around and she was gone, I looked around and she wasn’t there. But since this is $5 I kept, was it a mortal or venial sin?
 
bacon_man said:
Well, we walked a short distance and she was gone. We were in a hurry, and it was a Wal-Mart, if that helps any. I didn’t have much time to walk around and look, I turned around and she was gone, I looked around and she wasn’t there. But since this is $5 I kept, was it a mortal or venial sin?
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Five bucks from a billion dollar company isn’t grave matter so at worse I would think a venial sin. Five bucks from a beggar would be mortal. 🙂

Either way I’d rather pay it back here than the herafter. 😊
 
For people who work retail, to earn a living to pay rent and feed kids, that $5 could mean the clerk’s job.

The clerk has to have her drawer audited at the close of the shift. They could lose their job if the drawer is short.

The proper thing to do is to go back to the store, go to the Customer Service counter and ask for a manager, return the money to that manager.
 
kage_ar said:
For people who work retail, to earn a living to pay rent and feed kids, that $5 could mean the clerk’s job.

The clerk has to have her drawer audited at the close of the shift. They could lose their job if the drawer is short.

The proper thing to do is to go back to the store, go to the Customer Service counter and ask for a manager, return the money to that manager.
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Wow, I didn’t know that.
 
Im a cashier at walmart actually! dont feel guilty, about 5 people go on that drawer at one time, so when they count it and find that its $5 short, they wont know who did it, and cant point blame at anyone. Dont feel guilty, it wont cost anyone their job.
 
So I still have that $5 and I don’t want to spend it because I don’t think it would be moral, would it be a sin if I kept it?
 
bacon_man said:
So I still have that $5 and I don’t want to spend it because I don’t think it would be moral, would it be a sin if I kept it?
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Bacon, re-read the second part of my first reply to you.

Yes, keeping it would be a deliberate venial sin. You need to restore the money to the rightful owner. You cannot put it in the poor box since that is only allowable when it’s morally impossible to return it to the original owner due to fear of self incrimination. In this case there is no worry of incriminating yourself since you didn’t “steal” it in the first place so you are morally obligated to return it to it’s rightful owner.

It’s five bucks - be a man (or a bacon-man) and give it back to them.
 
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