I pulled into a parking lot, opened my car door…and the wallet was just lying there on the ground. I checked the I.D. inside and the dude didn’t live far from me so I stopped by his place.
He was an older Italian man, and he was floored when I handed everything over to him. His elderly wife gave me a huge hug. He gave me $100.00 which I refused to accept. I just told him to ‘pay it forward’, the next time he has the chance.
But he insisted, so I caved in and took the $100.00, then took the wife and kids out for dinner at a Steakhouse!
I hate to say it but…me too. Under 87% of circumstances I would return a wallet or someones lost valuables. But a month ago I was giving the guy I had to share a room with six months ago a ride to Walmart at night and I was looking for a parking space and we both spotted a purse laying on the ground.
We just looked at each other and we read each others mind and we looked around and pulled over and grabbed the purse and took off. The purse was empty. But yeah, I’ve had lost wallets returned and most of the time I will help out a friend or even a stranger and I give to charities or the homeless but this time I wanted that purse to have a $100 bucks in it so we could split it.
One day I’ll walk by a homeless person and throw him a dollar or two. The very next day, I might just walk on by…my generosity depends on my mood in the moment.
I think the difference was that you knew who it belonged to and it was someone you could bring it back to. I think you did the right thing.
If you would have chosen to keep it, it might have bit you back in terms of guilt and the stress of knowing what you did wrong turning into negative voices or other symptoms. It worked out great however, I hope you and your family enjoyed your meal.
I saw the pic of the man from his wallet. He looked like a good guy, so I did the right thing. Maybe if he looked like a terrorist, I would have kept the money! lol!
I changed my mind. Instead of flagging this, I’m just goin to say that, as a Syrian, this really hurt my feelings. Please be careful not to say unintentionally racist things in the future.
At the dog walking park I used to go to this woman’s dog goes rummaging through this bush and comes out with a wad of cash in its mouth. Like thousands. I think she might have just kept it but a dogooder phoned the cops. They claimed it belonged to a known drug dealer and kept the lot.
I wish I could say I’d give it all back but with my current cash flow problems I have to say I’d probably keep it. I TRY to do the right thing, I give homeless people the free meal cards to McDonald’s that my dad sends me (cuz I don’t eat McDonald’s food), but I’m struggling to meet expenses and would keep the cash. If I wasn’t so poor currently, tho, I’d give it back. I guess I’m selfish in putting my needs first…
People of Middle Eastern descent are often suspected of being terrorists simply because they are from the Middle East. In North America and especially Europe, there has been a lot of very vitriolic dialogue about people of Middle Eastern descent, and because the conflict in Syria has created a refugee crisis, Syrians are often singled out especially for this kind of stereotyping.
She isn’t saying that terrorists have to be Syrian. She’s saying that as someone whose background has opened her up to people making these prejudiced assumptions about her and other people she cares about, it’s hurtful.
Well, I’m a little sensitive about stealing. When I was in a house in college, I stole an orange out of the common fridge. A house meeting was called and the thief (me) was called a “sociopath”. I didn’t say anything during the meeting but later, I went to the other, less hysterical R.A. and confessed. Man, they wouldn’t let me here the end of it and making a big thing of it is what sent me to a councilor and then a psychiatrist to begin with. I got so much negative attention for that minor crime that I still have trouble with stealing house food.
But, Patrick T, that much money, you did the right thing. Any thing else would have guilt and personal bad feelings about anything you bought with it. Way to be a good citizen.
I’m not American and don’t understand exactly what’s going on between those countries. I watch the news though. But the word terrorist didn’t remind me of Syrian especially, I don’t know if that’s because I’m Japanese. I just felt strange when @Ninjastar said ‘as a Syrian’. Just how I felt.
Before the year 2005, I would have kept all of it. In the year 2005, and after, I had a religious conversion, and I would have contacted the owner, and gave him his money. Religion does make a difference.
Yeah, when someone says someone “looks like a terrorist” in North America, they generally mean that they look Middle Eastern. Which is odd, because generally terrorist acts in North America are perpetrated by white men. So it’s an unfortunate stereotype that leaves people of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent feeling vulnerable and defensive.
