Theme Song: “What’Cha Gonna Do about It?” NKOTB (You’ll quickly realize that many of my theme songs are from this group…)
Today’s Projects: Consult at 1, finish the Firewalk article, work on website content for a client, write and edit for Bright Hub, contact the student loan folks, and work a bit on this old English online class I found
So…
Today I was on Facebook and I saw the headline “Stupid Idiot Finds $17,000 and Returns It” courtesy of CafeMom. I was flabbergasted. The last time I checked, returning a stolen wallet was not a stupid thing to do – it was the right thing to do. This blog post was based upon the following story, published in the Chicago Sun Times:
A man from Arlington Heights was at an ATM machine when he noticed a bag with the word “Chase” printed on it. When he looked in the bag, he found that there was money and receipts in the bag. He then took the bag inside the Chase bank that was nearby. He was told it was not theirs, and it turns out after reporting it, it belonged to Loomis, the Armored car company.
Okay, so looking at this story it seems to me to be a clear-cut case of someone doing the right thing. Man finds bag, man ascertains the bag contains a lot of money that was not his, the man returns the bag to the bank and tries to find the rightful owner. I’m confused about where returning a stolen wallet becomes worthy of being called a “stupid idiot.” In fact, I’m concerned about the fact that the man is being called a “stupid idiot” for performing in accordance with what many would consider morality.
When did it become dumb to do the right thing?
What is it about doing the right thing that’s stupid? Let’s imagine for a moment that the man did not return the money, and instead kept it. If he’s the sort of fellow who would feel guilt, that would certainly eat him up inside. If he later returned it, then he would be suspect. If he spent the money, unless he has a complete disconnect with morality, it would seem that he would look at his purchased items and think “Wow…that’s not really mine.” If he gave it away to charity (think 80s movie classic Ghost) he might absolve himself of some of the guilt – but really, would that make his action any less wrong?
Returning the stolen wallet is both the moral and the smart thing to do.
No, it seems that he did both the right thing and the smart thing. Considering some of the comments on his actions alluded to a call to do the right thing only because there would be video surveillance (ah…fodder for another post), then he was acting in his best interest. To take the money would have made him break the law, as at some point, you would think, Loomis would be looking for their missing bag. When they went through the video, and talked to people in the area, they’d have found that the man had taken the money. Now, $17,000 is a good amount of money, but it’s not enough to skate down to Mexico and live off of, in hiding, for the rest of your life.
My concerns about the original author
It concerns me that this action is being called stupid – not only by the author of the blog post I originally read but also by those commenting on the blog. If everyone acted in a manner fueled only by near-sighted self-interest, it would be difficult to hold society together. It appears that it’s more common for people to act in such a way. However, I’m more of an optimist. I would think that most people, contrary to what they might say, would do the right thing in that situation. If not because it was the right thing, then out of fear for the consequences of their actions.
What do you think? Is returning a wallet a stupid thing if there’s a lot of money involved? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
