To think my friend shouldn't have taken this money?

[Gracelet]

She was at a National Trust type place which had a second hand book section. As she was browsing she found £165 hidden in one of the books. Rather than hand it in she just kept it and looked rather shocked when I said it was theft.

My perspective - the book belonged to the shop and therefore so does the money.

Her perspective - just luck she came across it so decided to keep it/the shop should have checked the books.

Just for extra info, she doesn't struggle with money but does live payday to payday.

Theft. I couldn’t have kept that money in a million years. Not even if I’d actually bought the book and found it later.

I’m reminded of the poster who found a substantial sum of money, several thousand pounds,sewn into a handmade blanket she bought from a charity shop and everyone was telling her to keep it.

I agree

I would have bought the book and kept the money.

Those of you saying NT might have been able to track down the donor are deluded - that cash would go into the till or maybe into the pocket of one of the staff.

If I was skint and found it, i might have felt like the universe wanted me to have it. The shop don't know it's there, they won't be disadvantaged. I doubt they have a process for handing so if would have just been a kerfuffle with the volunteers trying to work out what to do (and possibly end up in the tea and biscuit funds). I think anyone saying they wouldn't keep it has never been broke

It's theft. I wouldn't be able to remain friends with a person who did that.

National Trust do operate a gift aid scheme. I don't know if they use it in their book shops but as their website says they raise £25M a year from book sales they'd be daft not to.

She didn't buy it!

I wouldn’t take it because I’d assume it was a set up and I was being filmed 😂

then I’d be outed as a thief.

That's theft. Pure and simple.

C'mon, books are donated by the bagload with no way to track the owners. No one's tagging individual book owners and letting them know their book was bought and made a few pence of giftaid. Forget about restoring it to the owner. It comes down to whether you feel the NT is more deserving or this woman, who OP rather confusingly says doesn't struggle for money but also lives paycheck to paycheck. If the latter is the case, then better she uses it than the NT who charge the earth for a slice of cake and never knew this money existed. The idea that she had to buy the book is pretty spurious. If she bunged a fiver in the collection box, that'd do the same job morally.

I'd have just bought the book

That's my take on it too.

Yep she stole it, why didn't she just buy the book???

I can't believe the majority of people saying they wouldn't keep it! I bet most of you would!

That's theft, plain & simple. Extra awful that she's stolen from a charity.

Not sure I could be friends with someone who'd steal from a charity.

No one's tagging individual book owners and letting them know their book was bought and made a few pence of giftaid.

Oxfam do. (Or used to - it's been a while since I donated any goods to them.) I used to receive an email with a total of how much my items had sold for in the last 6 months.

Although it's beside the point, as this was NT not Oxfam.

I don't think it's theft? More likely that the person who donated the book tucked it in there for safekeeping and accidentally forgot about it. It's not the National Trust's money at all?

Yes I would have done the same and would have been interested in what the book was about and if it held any kind of sign! Sounds daft but sometimes these are just meant to happen. Maybe she did need it this month.

Especially if the money was randomly inserted bit by bit, I’d think it was almost certainly a case of dementia-related ‘squirrelling away’, as per my pp.

A friend had to clear an old uncle’s flat after he died (he’d had dementia) and found a load of cash randomly stuck in, and in between, a pile of old newspapers and magazines. It totalled over £2000!

Very dishonest of her and selfish. Ofcourse she should have handed it in. It would male me view her very differently.

I think it says a lot about her and her morals.

If she hadn't wanted to give it to the NT, she could have taken it and donated it to another charity she felt was mire deserving. Just because she found it, it doesn't make it hers.

The legal definition of theft, which would be used by the police/in court is:

Dishonest
Appropriation of
Property
Belonging to Another
With the Intention to Permanently Deprive the Other of it.

I would say all those elements (points to prove) are there & your friend has stolen the money. It's a pretty low thing to do in any circumstances, but particularly considering the National Trust is a charity.

I would have took the cash and at least bought the book too

Of course it is theft. She went into a shop and took £165 pounds. What else could it be?