Posted on January 25, 2008 by Kathy McManus in All, Altruism Comments (7)
The Gift
Long after the holiday decorations have been put away and the presents have started to lose their luster, the spirit of the season past becomes increasingly hard to hold on to.
But we found that one woman’s gift to another still sparkled, well into the New Year.
In the mad crush of holiday shopping, a Massachusetts woman found the gift —an envelope with $770 in cash, abandoned in a crowded toy store. It was as if a benevolent stranger had left it there just for her. At 54, the woman was a widow and on disability while recovering from shoulder surgery. Now, visions of sugar plums danced in her head—along with a new HDTV. She picked up the envelope.
The envelope had been lost by a 48 year old woman who was on disability and in a panic. She had saved for a year to buy Christmas presents for her daughters and grandchildren. She called the toy store, but no money had been found. Christmas would be ruined.
The widow, meanwhile, reflected on how joyless her life had been before she found the $770. “If something like this can make me feel better and stop being such a bah-humbug as I have been, then that’s a good thing. It’s hard to get in the spirit, but this is certainly helping.” “This” was her decision to immediately turn the money over to the police.
The next morning, the woman who had lost the cash called the toy store one last, desperate time, and learned of the widow who did the right thing. She started to cry. “I’m so flabbergasted,” she said. “She restored my faith in humanity.”
Yours too?
Comments (7)
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Missing Money
This is an interesting story as I once found a $100 bill on the sidewalk outside a major hotel in Boston. I contemplated keeping it but thought I would do the right thing and turn it in.
The front desk said that if no one claimed it in a year that I would get the $100. Well, of course no one claimed it and when I asked about the $100 bill there was mysteriously no record of it being turned in. I guess not everyone is as honest as this woman. The question I have is how do you distinguish between responsible behavior and foolishly putting yourself in harm’s way and/or giving up good fortune for the benefit of a stranger? What criteria defines responsibility versus naivety?
RE: Missing Money
Good Fortune
I don’t believe good fortune comes from money on the sidewalk. I’ve always thought that if you take from someone, eventually you will have something taken from you. Turning in the money was the right think to do. You should be proud of yourself for making the right decision.
RE: Missing Money
Turning in the money?
I have to disagree that turning in the money was the “right” thing to do. At a very young age, most humans are afraid of the dark in response to a fear of the unknown. As we grow older we understand that while there are not monsters under the bed, there are monsters in the world in many shapes. My point is this; when attempting to “do good” be aware that there are always those that will balance the scales and “do harm.” In this case it was naive to think that the money would ever be returned, to either yourself or the person who lost it.
RE: Turning in the money?
nothing but RIGHT!
Turning the money in with the hope that it would be returned to the rightful owner was absolutely the right thing to do! The fact that there was no record of it being turned in doesn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that YOU did the right thing.
If you didn't earn it, it isn't yours
My thoughts on this subject of returning money that isn’t yours is simple. If you didn’t earn, return it. About 2 weeks ago while I was paying with my debit card and asked for $20 dollars back, the clerk handed me $40 instead. I turned back to her and told her she gave me $20 extra and this is not what my receipt shows as being taken out of my acct. so I gave it back to her and she didn’t even say thank you but I felt good in my heart because I did the right thing. I believe in karma – what goes around comes around.
Who Knows
I love the fact that the woman turned in the money. And, who knows, maybe the money landed in the hands of the person who needed it the most.
Similar story in the news
There was a really similar story in the news this week in New York. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/08/14/2008-08-4_good_samaritan_who_found_100_bill_comes_.html It’s quite a crazy story that $100 got returned from a cart in NYC! I would hope that most would do the right thing and turn in the money, but that’s not always the case. We all can learn a little something from these people.