Would you be unreasonable to keep one million pounds?

[RainbowWaffles]

Inspired by another thread where tiny theft is essentially de minimus and not a big deal... how about the opposite... if you found one million pounds in the street that belonged to someone else, would you keep it?

You can assume the following:

There is a 0 per cent chance you would get caught
You would have no problem using and spending the money (just forget about all the money laundering prevention laws here)
The money belongs to someone else
You have no idea who it belongs to or what they would use it for

So it is purely a question of morality not practicality. WWYD?

Well, if I saw £1m I'd run the other way sharpish.
I'd never sleep soundly again if I took it, I'd be constantly expecting drug dealers to barge in and turn my house into some king of fucking abattoir

No Ta

No , I wouldn't even think of it.
I would be concerned for the person who lost it .
I have found small sums of money over the years and always went to the nearest police station .
If no one claims in a certain period you get it .

I'd feel too bad for whoever lost it. So I wouldn't keep it. Unless I knew who it was then I would judge based on that. Eg if was was Philip Green I'd 100% keep it.

Hand it back and be hopeful that karma will the reward.

For those that pocketed it, it would never bring joy no matter how you used it.

I would turn it in to the police because it's enough money to ruin someone's life if they lost it. But I would secretly be hoping for a reward.

I would 100% keep it!!

I’d hand it in but I would really want to keep it.

Used to work in banking. Cash is only useful for off the books spending. Realistically it's difficult to spend more than 20k a year or do in cash. Or at least that's what I worked out.

You have to ignore this for the purpose of this moral dilemma. Just assume you can put it in the bank and spend (otherwise indeed one mill in cash is pretty useless and worth considerably less once you have gone through the hassle of laundering it).

If this was a real scenario and I'd find a million in cash I am 90% sure that money would be connected to a crime and I'd head straight for the police, since I don't think that would be worth going to jail for.

If there was zero percent chance of getting caught, how would I explain my changing spending pattern when I pay my yearly taxes? Tax-services tend to notice that kind of activity on your bank account if you suddenly start paying for a lot of things in cash or if your bank-account magically started filling up on the regular with no explanation of where this money came from and how much you have of it.

But if there'd also be zero chance of getting arrested for tax fraught, I'd keep it. People don't pay their hospital bills or any other legit need bills in cash.

I would hand it in. No questions. If it isn't claimed in 6 weeks, then it's yours.

But seriously, who the hell would a) have £1,000000 in cash b) accidentally lose it? Just not possible.

I'd hand it in but I'd hate every second of it!

I would keep it without a second thought. In real life though, I would probably keep enough to pay off our debt and then I'd consider handing the rest in.

Let's add to your scenario, RainbowWaffles - you find out the £1 million was lost by someone who needed it to pay for their child's life saving operation. Would you still keep it now you know whose it is and what it is for? And would it really never cross your mind to wonder or care when you found something so valuable?

I think in that instance almost 100 per cent of people wouldn’t keep it. You would have to be a major asshole.

I think most people would wonder where the money came from and what it was for. The point in this scenario is you can never know. So you can’t weigh up it’s legitimate intended use against your own as part of the rationale. It’s totally blind.

In reality, this is the part that would get me. I would start off convincing myself it was small change to a horrible person who deserved to lose their money and spend the rest of my life unable to sleep worrying about whether dear old Ethel lost all her retirement funds and the proceeds of sale from her sole property thus rendering her destitute and driving her to suicide. My conscience would get the better of me I think. Although my life would be a lot easier. Is it worth the trade off?

I’d send someone else round to pick it up and share the loot

I've often dreamt of finding 1 mili . In the dream, it's always drugs money and the drug dealers always find me

I'd sit on it for 6 weeks. Literally, hide it in the sofa cushions or something. No one would know I've found it, but id keep my ear to the ground to see the it anyone was looking for it.
If not, id keep it

Assuming it's not drugs money, yes, I'd keep it. More fool the person walking around with that sort of moment in cash

It wasn't £1million but I did find a bag of cash once. I didn't count it, but there must have been a few hundred quid in it. It was rolled up tightly & stuffed into one of those plastic bank bags, so effectively anonymous cash. It was at a horse event, & I found it round the back of the trade tent when I'd gone to use the loo. I have to admit that for a moment I did consider keeping it, but then I thought that it was probably someone's takings for the day & I knew if I did keep it I'd never get any pleasure out of it, I'd feel far too guilty.
So I think I would also hand in the hypothetical £1million.

I would not keep it but not because I necessarily think it would be wrong, but because I know I would worry myself sick about it and most likely end up making myself really ill over it. Not worth it.

I found a very small bundle of notes just the other week, and handed it in (it was no trouble as there is a police station right next to my workplace). I was slightly tempted not to as they were just lying in the street, no wallet or anything, but I thought it could be part of someone's rent money or something equally crucial. Four weeks later no-one had claimed it so I got it back, conscience clear :) Colleagues said I was mad.

A million though... now that would be extreme temptation. I think I'd just try not to think too much about it, and hand it in ever so quickly before I could change my mind. After all, in this scenario you know that it will be collected if you hand it in, which means you know there's a rightful owner. Unless you can promise us it's someone so rich they definitely wouldn't miss it. But they'd be rich enough to hire detectives, so the "you definitely wouldn't be caught" doesn't work either...

I would keep it. If all the above points were true, I would 100% keep it

No. I just couldn’t do it. Unless....

Finders keepers, losers weepers.

I read about a similar scenario happening in Japan and the person handed it in, scared it belonged to the Yakuza. But then the yakuza can hardly go and claim it back from the police so surely the person who handed it in put themselves in worse danger as they can now be identified! On that basis, I would keep it and keep my mouth firmly shut!

I once found a handbag left in the shop I managed. Obviously a customer so I opened it to find identity and give them a call. There was over £500 in it. Rang woman and she came to collect. First she complained that I had opened her bag then she counted out all the cash in case I had stolen any!! No thank you, no reward.

Never again. Next time it can stay where it's been left.