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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Should we keep the money we found?

293 replies

Exboltqueen · 18/10/2021 19:11

This morning at soft play Ds found four £1 at the bottom of a slide. He was really excited but I explained how it wasn't ours and it had fallen out of someone's pocket and we handed it in to the reception. Unaware of the £4, on the way home DH found £100 in rolled up notes. He stood there for a while and didn't see anyone looking for it. I feel like it's good karma and we should keep it. My husband thinks we should give it to the police. (We are low income so feels like a lot of money)
So
YABU - you should practice what you preach to your son, hand it in.
YANBU - enjoy the good karma and keep it

OP posts:
BaggyBloomers · 18/10/2021 19:29

I would hand it in. You never know just how much someone might be depending on that money.

TeloMere · 18/10/2021 19:29

Hand it in to the police, It might belong to someone on a low wage who gets paid in cash.
Also how do you know no one saw your DH pick it up, or there was CCTV? If I lost that much I'd go back and search the area and knock on doors asking if anyone saw anything.

Lokdok · 18/10/2021 19:29

Your logic is flawed. If anything, you'll get bad karma by not handing it in. Of course you must!

Chloemol · 18/10/2021 19:29

You hand it in. Someone who lost it could be in a worse situation than you

If it’s not claimed you maybe able to obtain it

How would you feel if you lost that money and someone kept it?

thewhatsit · 18/10/2021 19:30

@SD1978

You logic makes absolutely no sense. You'd hand in £4 - an insignificant amount to teach your son about honesty, but £100 is fair game? Karma doesn't exist. It should be handed in to the police, and as others have said, you can claim it back if no one else does. If that was your £100.......you'd be happy if someone kept it for 'karma'......doubt it
This. It’s the wrong way round.
ThirdElephant · 18/10/2021 19:30

Hand it in, OP.

Suzi888 · 18/10/2021 19:32

I would hand it in.

toolazytothinkofausername · 18/10/2021 19:33

If I saw on the floor a bundle of money rolled up... I would pretend I never saw it!!! Who knows which dodgy people it belongs to? Much more trouble than it is worth!

TableFlowerss · 18/10/2021 19:33

If I found a tenner on the floor I would keep it, but £100 rolled, no I couldn’t keep that. That could be a lot of money for someone so I’d feel too guilty and I’d hand it in.

shrugshrug · 18/10/2021 19:33

Do hand it in.
It could be a huge amount to the person that lost it.

Twillow · 18/10/2021 19:35

Hand it in.
Rolled up notes makes me think dealers.
So they definitely won't be going in the police station to ask for it!

JovialNickname · 18/10/2021 19:36

Take it take it. Anyone who has £100 rolled up and loses it isn't poor. Even if it's an old person they'll be rattling around in their massive house that you will never afford collecting their free winter fuel allowance.
Statistically you are poorer than anyone that casually loses £100. Keep it and use it well!

Malin52 · 18/10/2021 19:37

Years ago I found £40 in front of a cash point at University.

I was absolutely brassic and just 1 of those £s would have made a difference to my week!

I couldn't have lived with myself though as I assumed that the person who lost it was probably on the bones of their arse too.

Handed it in to the student office who called me a month later-no one had claimed so I got to keep it in good conscience.

TableFlowerss · 18/10/2021 19:37

@JovialNickname

Take it take it. Anyone who has £100 rolled up and loses it isn't poor. Even if it's an old person they'll be rattling around in their massive house that you will never afford collecting their free winter fuel allowance. Statistically you are poorer than anyone that casually loses £100. Keep it and use it well!
Hmm
JesusInTheCabbageVan · 18/10/2021 19:38

If you keep it without taking sufficient steps to find the owner, it's theft. Aside f from being morally wrong, you could end up with a criminal record if caught on CCTV. Or your DH in this case.

EmbarrassingMama · 18/10/2021 19:39

I once found a £50 note on the floor in a swanky bar in London (friend’s birthday, not my choice!). I handed it to the barman and told him I’d just found it on the floor and he said “I’d keep it love. Anyone rich enough to carry £50s is rich enough to lose one”.

Doesn’t help, but made me laugh!

duckme · 18/10/2021 19:40

My son has found the odd fiver here and there (usually at the local shopping centre) and we tend to put it in the Ronald McDonald charity boxes.
For that amount I would take it to the police. Especially this time of year, it could be Christmas present money.
I understand that it is a lot of money, but it could have been a lot of money to the person who lost it too. Imagine getting £100 out of the bank and then getting home to find it gone! I'd be absolutely gutted.

MolyHolyGuacamole · 18/10/2021 19:41

Are you researching a classic social psychology dilemma? Save yourself the work and just read this www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/20/honesty-is-majority-policy-in-lost-wallet-experiment

SleepingStandingUp · 18/10/2021 19:41

@JovialNickname

Take it take it. Anyone who has £100 rolled up and loses it isn't poor. Even if it's an old person they'll be rattling around in their massive house that you will never afford collecting their free winter fuel allowance. Statistically you are poorer than anyone that casually loses £100. Keep it and use it well!
Or they've raided the kids piggy banks to pay one of the bills at the post office. Or someone has lent them it to get a food shop in for the kids.

Having cash on you doesn't mean you're rolling in it, what a weird perception

1forAll74 · 18/10/2021 19:41

Its a lot of money to lose, best to hand it in to the police. It may be difficult to find the owners of the money, but bet they are going a bit frantic about losing it. They may have gone to the local police in the area where the money was dropped, and asked if it had been handed in by chance.

Original poster
Exboltqueen · 18/10/2021 19:41

I know it is the right thing to do. It just seemed too much of a coincidence to happen on the same day. I'm doubtful we will get it back though its probably drug money due to the area it was found. But yes he will go to the police station in the am

OP posts:
HailAdrian · 18/10/2021 19:43

Surely no one actually loses £100 and thinks it's been handed in to the police though?

SleepingStandingUp · 18/10/2021 19:43

And if YOUDO keep it, behonezt with yourself.

The universe didn't get a rich / unworthy person to drop money in the floor for you.
Someone, possibly as poor as you or poorer, dropped it and you've taken it.

ThirdElephant · 18/10/2021 19:43

@Exboltqueen

I know it is the right thing to do. It just seemed too much of a coincidence to happen on the same day. I'm doubtful we will get it back though its probably drug money due to the area it was found. But yes he will go to the police station in the am
Good for you, OP.
MolyHolyGuacamole · 18/10/2021 19:43

[quote MolyHolyGuacamole]Are you researching a classic social psychology dilemma? Save yourself the work and just read this www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/20/honesty-is-majority-policy-in-lost-wallet-experiment[/quote]
Wait here it is again