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?

I once dropped 20 quid when pregnant, as i struggled off the stool to get it a wanker swooped down grabbed it and ran off. Shitbag.

I dont know if i could keep it without thinking on who it belonged too. I'd like to say no but money is something that's not coming in much now.

Yes of course

I handed in £120 to the police so of course I would for much more. I just kept thinking what if it was someone's food budget for the week and felt guilty when I thought about keeping it. Obviously one million isn't someone's food budget but someone may have saved for all their life for that money or it may be for a really important reason such as house money, operation etc. I couldn't live with the guilt.

It's interesting that the amount makes a difference. Last week I had to make a long train journey carry just over 1000 in cash. I placed it in an envelope and wrote my name and contact details on it. If I found an envelope like this I would return it and i think most people would. However, a million pounds is life changing, sad to say I'd do what I could to keep it!

It's 1 month to wait before it's returned to you by the way. I got the £120 back.

I would hand it to the cops without a second thought, same for any amount of money really. While my life is as privileged as it is with a roof over my head and food in my fridge, I could not profit from someone else's misfortune. The guilt would eat me up and it wouldn't be worth it.

I'd probably feel guilty untill my plane landed then I'd be too pissed on cocktails to care.
Whos carrying a million around with them and not noticed dropping it.

Nope. In Spain I saw a young woman drop 20 euros from her pocket without realizing. I ran after her and gave it back. Her gratitude and surprise touched me. If I found a life-changing sum and stole it, it would have changed me into a thief. Nope.

I'd hand it in. In the unlikely event it wasn't claimed, I think the police then pass it on to the finder, in which case you could enjoy it with a clear conscience.

I wouldn't hand it back. I'd reason that anyone who had come by the money honestly wouldn't have it in cash, and left for me to find. I'd of course, be doing good for the world, taking 1 million in cash from a crook of some sort.

TBH I'd probably hand it in upto about 20 grand. At that point I cant see a reason for anyone to carry that amount of cash legitimately

I'd definitely have to give it back, it's totally different to me than finding £1 on the floor or a scrap of cactus and I'd feel terrible keeping it (although can't say I wouldn't like to have the money 😁). For that amount though I'd insist it was mine to 'caretake' as I found it, ie I wouldn't be trusting it to the police, I'd personally give it back to the owner once they could prove it was theirs and I'd bank it and keep the interest as my part of caretaking it, think that would be morally fair. If no-one claimed it I'd live off the interest until I was 100% sure there was no way to find the owner then I'd take it as mine.

Keep it 100%

If someone is careless enough to leave a million pounds lying around then I'm damn sure I'd keep it safe for them!

I'd comvince myself only a rich person or dealer could lose a million.
If I ever found random money in a purse, I would always hand it in.
We found a brown envelope when we were teens at a fun fare, most people got paid in a brown envelope, we held interviews to find the owner, the dad was extremely grateful he gave us 10punt ATT.
It thought us the value of honesty.

Of course not. It belongs to someone else.

I would definitely hand it in in this scenario. I'm not sure where my closest manned police station is though. That's not a dig at the police, just an interesting thought as to how far is reasonable to travel to give someone back their money (hopefully.)

No I wouldn't keep it. I wouldn't keep any amount of money. Less than £10 if the owner wasn't obvious I'd hand it into the nearest shop or give it to charity. Anything more straight to the police.

I think that if someone is careless enough to drop one million smackeroonies in the street then they don't deserve and/or need that money, so damn right I'd keep it!........at least that is how my thought process would go but whether or not I actually ended up handing it in I honestly couldn't say unless it actually please Godhappened.

I wouldn't keep it. In my experience if I take something that belongs to someone else then I will have to pay for it in some other way. I don't think I am honest out of choice, I just do not want to be on the wrong side of karma. I would probably hand it to police or donate it to charity.

Would anyone answer differently if they had received an erroneous bank transfer to their bank account for the same sum instead of finding cash?

All rules remain the same and you wouldn’t be tracked down (obviously it’s a hypothetical scenario again!)

yes, I would be especially wary of money through bank transfer. It mostly likely would be money earned from illegal means. Money that is earned through illegal means destroys families in subtle way. So yes, I won't keep it.

I would be inclined to think the opposite. 1 mil in cash- more likely to be dodgy, especially in this day and age. Bank transfer- more likely it’s legitimate but just went into the wrong account, maybe a digit wrong or something. I just wondered whether the different assumptions as to the likely legitimacy of the origins of the money would change anyone’s answer.

IRL it would be very easy to trace a bank transfer that went to the wrong account, but we are suspending reality for the moral conundrum.

I've worked up to now on the basis of money found in a purse/wallet means you can trace the owner, or if I've actually seen someone drop, I turn it in/give it to them. Knowing who the owner is & keeping their money would feel the same to me as going into their home & pocketing it. If it's just money in the street I keep it. I've found coins, £5 £10 £20 notes etc over the years & if I was well off & not constantly struggling with poverty I'd very likely have brought all of it to a police station. I'd most definitely keep £1,000,000 if it was just lying in the street or wherever.

I'd hand it in. I wouldn't be able to sleep worrying about it otherwise. I lose sleep over tiny things that seem like nothing in the morning so I would definitely toss and turn over this. Also, a million pounds in cash. That didn't fall out of an old lady's handbag. I'd assume it to be drug money and I wouldn't want any drug lords to come looking for it.

MissLadyM

0% of getting caught? Of course I'd keep it! So would everyone!”

But that’s just it, they wouldn’t, which I find really interesting. I couldn’t live with the guilt. I’m not religious in the least, just plagued by almost pathological honesty which is a total pain in the arse and a trait I wish I didn’t have. I can think of several situations in my life when dishonesty would have served me very well but I just couldn’t do it.
When I was 6 or 7, I found a massive £5 note rolling along the ground near a telephone box (Days Lane, Blackfen, if anyone lost one circa 1970/71 😁). It was a massive amount of money in those days, we were very hard up and I gave it to my mum. Even then, I felt so bad about it that I eventually pleaded with her and badgered her so much that she put half of it in one of those little plastic children collection points the then Spastic Society used to have.

No idea where this very inconvenient personality trait came from and I’m not looking for slaps on the back. It really is a bloody nuisance and I sometimes irritate my family beyond belief 🤪

If it was random, no means whatever of tracing and a choice of handing it in or keeping it, I would in no way shape or form condemn anyone for a second for choosing the latter.