Ethical challenge
Stumbling into the vestibule of my building last night, between two sets of doors locked to non-residents, I was my usual distracted self, walking without "seeing," if you know what I mean. Moving by habit in familiar surroundings, tired from work. Noticed a little garbage on the floor. Felt a little irritation, there. Our maintenance guys keep the common areas as clean and well-maintained as can be expected, but pigs will be pigs, I guess... and hey wait a minute, that looks like money.

It was. A few crumpled up wads of bills. Mostly singles, but a few twenties in the mix. From what I could see, at least $50 lying there on the carpeting. And no, the challenge for me wasn't whether I would pick it up and put it in my pocket, laughing like Bart Simpson at the thought of the nice dinner someone's carelessness "bought" me. Too much bad karma tied in with finding and keeping a stranger's lost money, and I would thus never be tempted, 'cause I know all about karma.

But I still didn't know what to do. I just stood there, staring at it for at least a couple of minutes, not even touching it. I wondered, who belonged to this cash, and how did it get here? What drama did I miss? How active is my imagination, really?

Was it a street-corner drug pusher tossing away money with the cops in pursuit? Not likely (unless the pusher lives here, of course, and I doubt he'd lead the cops to his door. That only happens on Cops, the TV show, right?) Besides, the cops would have picked it up.

Was it a domestic dispute... an argument in the hall... "I don't want your fucking money, asshole!!"?

Was it some drunk college kid crawling home from the "entertainment district," pulling his door key out of his pocket, too impaired to notice all that money fell out when he did so?

Was someone from Candid Camera behind a screen, waiting to tug on a fishing line attached to the bill-wads the moment I stooped to pick them up, waiting for hilarity to ensue?

Whatever it was, I decided I was just going to leave it there. I realized the moment I so much as touched this money, I'd be inheriting responsibility for someone else's problem, which might not be a good thing in this case. Some ass-kickingly huge person walking in, for instance, just as I was grabbing the cash he'd dropped. But I was just going to turn it in to the office in the morning, I'd say through newly bleeding and broken teeth.

Or I scoop it up and wind up as Exhibit D in some UMass student's psych thesis. See how the guy stands there, makes sure nobody's looking, ascertains how much money's on the floor...

Or, five minutes later, the panicked retiree who'd dropped it would miss the opportunity to find what she'd been saving for the church bazaar upon the retracing of her steps.

I thought it best to leave it there.

Hopefully that was the best decision for all involved. I'd like to believe so, anyway... although I have a suspicion it ended up under the elastic bands of a few "adult entertainers" at one or the other of our neighborhood's strip clubs. But it's out of my hands now. 1:04:44 PM    comment []trackback []