AIBU to regret handing in cash found in a wallet?

[Finderskeeepers]

Found a wallet with £200 cash in it on a train. DH made me hand the wallet and cash in at the train station. I’m so annoyed - yes it was the right thing to do but we’re struggling financially and there’s no way that cash is making its way back to the owner. I shouldn’t have told him and should have just kept it.

Good karma (not that I believe in any of it) had already happened in these scenarios

You did the right thing, finding a tenner in the street with no id or wallet might be fair game but finding a wallet in a station with £200 quid, you have to hand it in.

What kind of person would you be if you’d kept someone else’s money? A deplorable one.

Yes they do if its not claimed after 12 weeks, thats why they take your contact info.
I've found an evolope with money before and was contacted by the police after 12 weeks to come and collect it as nobody had claimed it, same with my grandmother who found a gold watch.
Sometimes being honest pays off and you get to keep it other times you get to feel good about knowing that you've been able to help someone get their property or money back

Don't regret being honest, theres no reason why the train people werent as honest as you.

If this happens in future consider calling the person direct if youre worried. I did that twice with a wallet (took quite a bit of tracking down in both cases, both were tourists!) and once it was an ipod.

Wow regretting not stealing is wild

the only thing the OP feels dreadful about is telling her husband she found it ..she appears to have no morals..

I left my wallet on a train, it was handed in. I hit my cash back. Your cynicism isn’t an excuse for theft.

You fantasise about stealing? At the cost of some other poor person who is losing that money? No, people don't do that. Not decent upstanding people anyway!

When I was younger, I fantasised about progressing my career to earn more money. (I then worked hard to successfully achieve that). Stealing it or inheriting it is not something to dream about!

Cash found on the road/pavement whatever, do a good look around that no one seems to have dropped it, pulling things out of pockets etc and then yes, I would (and have) kept. Cash in a wallet… no. Assuming it wasn’t just cash but other cards etc? Much higher chance the person could actually be able to get it back!

I found a purse on a sink in a supermarket loo. Handed it in and then posted on a local Facebook group, where I’d found it, where I’d handed it in, that it had cash in, and the initials from the name on the cards. I realised after I left it might not have the cash in when they went to claim it. Then panicked they’d think I took some of it!
Theres no police station near and we were on the way to an appointment.
But my conscience was clear!

Yes - bloody awful.

Years ago when DS1 was a preschooler I left my purse in the train station toilets after having to root around in my bag for wipes. I’d not long left the loos before I realised. We rushed back to find a lovely lady handing it to staff. I’m now very grateful that OP wasn’t in the toilets that day.

And I also left a handbag on a Tesco trolley and almost left the car park, and a small bag dropped off a buggy once and was found by the nearby house owner. The Tesco trolley man handed it in to customer services and the home owner called my bank who contacted me. Neither took any money !!! So I have left/lost a purse/bag with purse three times, and three times an honest person has handed it in with all the money.

Shame on you, OP. Most people don’t need their spouse to remind them to be a decent human being.

No, everyone fantasises about winning a large amount of cash, or being given a huge pay rise. Decent people do not fantasise about stealing it.

The person who lost it could be tight for money too and it is theirs. How do you know they’ll never see it. Surely the person who lost it would check with the train station lost and found. check

I'm chuffed when I find something that belongs to someone else, it's like I turn detective mode on to get it back to them.

I've found a few things in my time and people are so happy to be given them back it makes you feel great, you should chase those kind of good feels rather than excitement of stealing someone's money.

I’m really glad you ended up handing it in, OP, even though you didn’t want to - that takes real effort. In Islam, doing something good when it’s difficult or against your own desires carries even greater reward. I know this isn’t charity, but I genuinely feel the same principle applies here.

I always think, what would I want someone to do if they found my wallet etc. That should give you the answer. I found a guys wallet in the shopping centre. It had a mobile number in it as well as money. I phoned the mobile, that person phoned the owner, we met i gave him back the wallet and he tried to give £20 for doing so, I refused it.

'What goes around comes around'

It really doesn't. That's a comfortable fantasy.

If I found a £50 note in the street, no question - straight in my pocket. However, if I found a wallet with the same £50, I’d hand it in. A wallet is usually identifiable with bus pass or cards and may even have sentimental value.

Yeah I know some really dishonest nasty people live very long, happy, healthy lives. Not fair!

They do. We found £400, handed it in, it was unclaimed. They gave it to us.

A friend of mine said one of the chief tasks of parenting was helping your children to understand that life isn't fair.