If You Found a $50 bill on the Street, What Would You Do?

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I’m starting this poll because of the varied opinions on another thread where someone asked, if they were right in keeping $50 they found at the movies.

If you found $50 on the street, what would you do?

If you can say what country or continent you live, that would be great. I’m wondering if there is a cultural difference.

Yeah I know. It’s not a perfect poll. My polls are always flawed. 🙂
 
That would depend. If I saw it fall from someone’s pocket/billfold I’d give it back to him/her. If it was just lying there, with no apparent owner, I would take it to the nearest police station. If no one claimed it after the set time allowed for people to claim lost money/articles, then it would be mine. I live in MN, btw.
 
If I had no idea whose it was, I would probably keep it and spend it on things I needed. 😊 If it was more than that - well, I guess if it was a single bill the next denomination would be $100, I would probably turn it in.

(I am the kind of person who picks coins up off the street on a regular basis. I don’t go out and look, but if I’m out and see a dime and I’m not holding anything, it goes in my pocket.)

If it was in a wallet/purse/container, no matter the amount, I would turn it in.
 
**Clarification: **The assumption is you don’t know who dropped it.
 
None of the things mentioned would I do. I have found cameras, cell phones, credit cards, wallets and money.

If you are able to locate the owner, than it sould be returned. The walled I took to the police after finding no one home at the address on the license. When I find cell phones, I call a number on the address book and let them know that i have found it. One was in a store so I left it there. One was on the ground and I met with the owner and returned it. The credit card I called the owner and they already and canceled the card. The cameral I put in the lost and found in the paper. Money is different usually it is such a small amounts of change that it would not be poosible to find the owner. If I found a large amount, I would advertize it in the paper. People don’t think to go to the police as was the case of the camera. If it wasn’t in the paper the owners would never have found it. They never thought to call the police.
 
TrueLight said:
**Clarification: **The assumption is you don’t know who dropped it.
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😊

I did see that part of the post, but to be honest I wanted to clarify it again just because I felt kind of bad about the answer. I don’t want people to think I’m a thief!! :o
 
silicasandra said:
😊

I did see that part of the post, but to be honest I wanted to clarify it again just because I felt kind of bad about the answer. I don’t want people to think I’m a thief!! :o
Click to expand...
Finding something does not make you a theif. Keeping it without trying to find the owner, if possible, would make you one. Quite frankly I don’t think fifty dollars is an amount great enough that you would be able to find the owner. It would not be immoral just to keep it.
 
TrueLight said:
**Clarification: **The assumption is you don’t know who dropped it.
Click to expand...
I had just such an experience, but with a $20 bill. It was at a time when I really needed the money and I thought it was literally a gift from G-d. I did thank G-d for it and spent it on food. Honestly, I would probably do the same today with a $50 bill, accounting for inflation and all. Today I would probably use it toward the rent or paying down my debts. That would be my first thought, although I might also give at least some of it to charity. I certainly wouldn’t turn it over to the New York City police! I wonder if anyone would just keeping walking.
 
I don’t think it’s sinful or immoral to just keep it (after thanking God for making your day a little better, of course :D).

First of all, if you didn’t see who dropped it, or no one comes running to you to claim it, it is nearly impossible to find the actual owner because anyone can say it’s theirs, in which case you don’t want to give someone the opportunity to sin.
Secondly, it is a rather small sum of money (relatively speaking, of course).
Third, if you regularly give to charities, there’s no harm in keep a little for yourself every once in a while. If you don’t regularly give, you might want to consider it.

Items or wallets, on the other hand, are a different story. Those you should try and give back, or at least turn it over to the police.
 
Keep it. Thank God for the blessing. Move on.

It’s not that big of a deal.

Now ---- if you found $5,000 - that is a different story. Then it needs to go to the police. And I believe that if no one claims it after a certain amount of time you get to keep it. “finders keepers” ya know. 😉

~Liza
 
I should probably clarify that I live in a small city on the edge of the Twin Cities. $50 is a large amount to me–I’m far from rich, so if I had lost that amount I would hope some kind person would turn it over to the local police so there’d be a chance I’d get it back. If I found it in downtown Mpls or St. Paul, though, I’d probably just keep it as an unexpected blessing from heaven. 🙂
 
I would check to see if it was obvious who might have dropped it first and ask them. If there wasn’t anyone I would thank God and donate it to charity unless I actually had a very pressing personal financial need. If that was the case, I thank God over and over!

You wanted to know location? Western Canada.
 
Oops! I should have read beyond the first post. Then I would have known that it was understood that one didn’t see/suspect who dropped it.
 
I would pick it up and keep it and later give it to my sister whom is a single unemployed mother.
 
In my home country (South Africa) I wouldn’t dream of going to tell the police I’d lost $50, not sure they’d even “open a case” for it, therefore, I wouldn’t hand a small sum over to them either.

Where I live now (a country in the Middle East) . . . well, I wonder if there are procedures for dealing with such a situation . . . I’ll have to ask some questions . . .
 
I have no idea how the police would find the owner of cash. Even if it was turned over, the person who lost it might not go to the same police station or even report it.

I voted that I would use it for charity. I do think that if my financial needs were very pressing, I might spend it.

All that said, I do think there is a point at which the amount would be more than I would feel comfortable keeping. $50 might even be at that limit. $100 could still be a bill carried by someone (I work with people who would be carrying bills in that denomination and might not immediately notice that they dropped one. 🤷). Beyond that though it would be a stack of bills or a lost wallet and that I would definately turn in.
 
TrueLight said:
If you found $50 on the street, what would you do?

If you can say what country or continent you live, that would be great. I’m wondering if there is a cultural difference.

Yeah I know. It’s not a perfect poll. My polls are always flawed. 🙂
Click to expand...
You poll is flawed, because it misses the option, that one knows what one does. I know that i would take it to the police, because i have done so.
Ok, it was 50 Euros and not 50 Dollars. And i forgot checking after 1 year whether someone had reclaimed, so bad luck and free money for the state i guess. Country was germany.
 
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