WWYD: The Envelope Full of Cash

In this installment of “What Would You Do,” a case of found money.

Back when my ex-boyfriend and I were poor students, we were out at a bar one night and found an envelope full of money on the floor. We opened it and found $1,200.

It was cash, not a wallet, so there was no name or card we could look at to find the owner. It was unmarked with no identifying features. We felt like we couldn’t just hand it into the bartender (we didn’t trust it would make it back to the right person, and thought he might keep it). So we decided to just stay there until close and see if someone came by who seemed to be looking for something lost.

No one came back, and we treated ourselves to a weekend in Montreal, but I still feel guilty when I walk past that bar. — A.

It’s a classic question isn’t it? What would you do if you found a large sum of money in a public place? My first instinct would be to give it to the bar owner, and my second instinct would be to turn it into the police and file a report, because if the money is unclaimed after a certain time period (30 days? 90 days?), the police gives it to you, right? (This man found a bag filled with $140,000 in it, and turned it into the police. It turned out to be a bag lost by Brinks Armored truck drivers. He was given a $2,000 reward for his good deed.) I’ve found $20 and smaller bills on the street and kept those, but I couldn’t in good conscious keep what could possibly be someone’s rent money or cash deposit for something important. I know it would be crushing for me if I lost that amount of money.

Email me your WWYD experiences to me with “WWYD” in the subject line. See previous installments. Photo: On the white line

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