Paper or Cash? Supermarket Bagger Returns Lost $10,000

December 1, 2008

Moses, a supermarket bagger, says the bible inspired him to return $10,000 in cash he found in his store's bathroom. Moses explained: "I teach at Sunday school with 10-year-old kids and I always tell them to do the right thing."

CNN deemed Moses' action so unusually generous that it sent a reporter to the store to discuss his decision making process. But perhaps choosing to return the money isn't so surprising. Despite the lure of free money, $10,000 on a bathroom floor seems a little fishy. Maybe Moses didn't want to get mixed up in any trouble, since someone would probably come looking for the cash.

What would you do if you found $10,000 in a bathroom?

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80 Comments

Shadowdamage 4 years 24 weeks

Sorry I meant: *the system is bent to protect the banks and the companies the money was spent with, and the person/victim actually caught up in it is the low man on the totem pole, who has to shoulder the waiting and the difficulty of being robbed...

Shadowdamage 4 years 24 weeks

1 in 4 people in the UK are now victims of identity theft - its THAT bad. What really sucks balls is that the system is bent to protect the banks, and the companies that the money was spent with..and the person/victim actually caught up in it, and given very little information to help them figure out where the leak "occurred". As I am super-careful about where I spend money online, what freaked me out the most was that they said there had been a few of these lately in my town and that they usually make the transaction MONTHS after they get the data to make it harder to determine the source..(when I reported it to the police)..so literally I have NO Idea if its a crooked person at a local shop that bought that ticket on my dollar, or an online purchase, or a recent trip, etc. Either way it makes me feel pretty sick and vulnerable because I am really careful and never in my life have I had my card details compromised...!

Shadowdamage 4 years 24 weeks

1 in 4 people in the UK are now victims of identity theft - its THAT bad. What really sucks balls is that the system is bent to protect the banks, and the companies that the money was spent with..and the person/victim actually caught up in it, and given very little information to help them figure out where the leak "occurred".As I am super-careful about where I spend money online, what freaked me out the most was that they said there had been a few of these lately in my town and that they usually make the transaction MONTHS after they get the data to make it harder to determine the source..(when I reported it to the police)..so literally I have NO Idea if its a crooked person at a local shop that bought that ticket on my dollar, or an online purchase, or a recent trip, etc. Either way it makes me feel pretty sick and vulnerable because I am really careful and never in my life have I had my card details compromised...!

PiNkY PiNk 4 years 24 weeks

yea, i could certainly use 10 grand but i'd be too afraid of karma. and i agree with shadowdamage... that really sucks, i'm sorry that happened to you. unfortunately it's so common now.

Cassandra57 4 years 25 weeks

I would probably be afraid to keep it, but sorely tempted. My car is now to the point of starting to cost me $$ for repairs, but I can't replace it yet. (Valve job looming....) I was in line at a gas station cashier a few yeas ago, and someone ahead of me dropped--I kid you not--a $100 bill. I discreetly stepped on it to hide it, and picked it up. I thought I knew who had dropped it, so when she looked around, I asked "Did you drop something?" She checked what she was holding, and her eyes got big, so I knew it was def hers, and handed it over. (Sort of regretted it, because I sure could have used the money, but it would have been wrong.) Also, when I worked in a school for "problem" kids (returning to society from juvenile camp, expelled from their home schools, etc.), a girl one day turned in a wallet. As it turned out, one of the boys had broken into a car the previous night and stolen a purse. Took my half the morning to find the owner, because there was no real ID in it, but there were a few items like a business card from her doctor's office, and a welfare card of some kind. It felt good to do what little I could to help her, and I was glad to model and reinforce responsible behavior for the girl who was thoughtful enough to pick the wallet out of the school trash can where the thief had thrown it. (Not all of them are "bad kids".)

Cassandra57 4 years 25 weeks

harmonyfrance 4 years 25 weeks

Well wouldn't it be heavy and big? I don't know I've never had $10,000.00 in cash before. I guess it depends what what kind of bills they were.

Jessiebanana 4 years 25 weeks

That's what I was thinking HF. How do you forget that and how could you step over it? But hey maybe that's just me I never carry cash. I'm paranoid carrying a twenty.

harmonyfrance 4 years 25 weeks

Another question...How on earth would you drop a bag of $10,000.00 and not notice until later?

colormesticky 4 years 25 weeks

I'd have returned it, absolutely no question. It wouldn't be mine to keep.

Shadowdamage 4 years 25 weeks

I would turn it in, not because of my faith or fear, just simply because IT IS NOT MINE. I know what it feels like to be robbed, I have been a couple of times in my life, (once last month, as a matter of fact when somehow someone got my cc number to buy a plane ticket fraudulently - 2 minutes to steal, and now 90 days to get back what amounts to about 1000 dollars...still waiting on it actually.) It makes me sick thinking of someone enjoying something that belonged to me, money I worked hard for, money we needed, being used so some jackass can jet around on my dollar. I could NEVER do that to anyone else, knowingly. And if its dirty money, or worse yet - counterfeit...how embarrassing would THAT be to find out when you try to spend it? Nooo way.

Shadowdamage 4 years 25 weeks

I would turn it in, not because of my faith or fear, just simply because IT IS NOT MINE.I know what it feels like to be robbed, I have been a couple of times in my life, (once last month, as a matter of fact when somehow someone got my cc number to buy a plane ticket fraudulently - 2 minutes to steal, and now 90 days to get back what amounts to about 1000 dollars...still waiting on it actually.)It makes me sick thinking of someone enjoying something that belonged to me, money I worked hard for, money we needed, being used so some jackass can jet around on my dollar.I could NEVER do that to anyone else, knowingly. And if its dirty money, or worse yet - counterfeit...how embarrassing would THAT be to find out when you try to spend it? Nooo way.

Michelann 4 years 25 weeks

YY, why would you assume that the person who lost the money is "rich"? What if 10 grand was every cent that person had? The idea of stealing from the rich to give to the poor is pretty awful even before you make that assumption. And Roarman, please excuse me. I had no idea that "I would keep it" meant you would give it back if somebody reported it missing, or that perhaps you wouldn't spend it on yourself.

Michelann 4 years 25 weeks

death by chocolat 4 years 25 weeks

At a street fair I spotted a purse tucked into a dark corner. I made my friends stop and went over to it, and it had credit cards and some jewelry in it- no cash. No police were to be found (oddly) so I called a friend to google the name from the driver's license, and were able to get ahold of the girl's parents. Apparently it had been stolen from her during the festival, but she was still around so we were able to meet up with her. She was just a college student like us, and she was SO happy to get that purse back! That was a good feeling.

POPSUGAR Beauty 4 years 25 weeks

There's no way that I would have kept that money. I agree with Vinigrette that you don't need to be religious to be moral, but hey — no matter why he turned it in, it was the right choice. He seems like a good egg.

organicsugr 4 years 25 weeks

Apparently, owning $10,000 makes someone rich. I had no idea.

Roarman 4 years 25 weeks

Well, Michelin, I never said what I would have done with it. So I won't add selfish to the list. If I found a wallet with ID in it, I would return that to it's rightful owner. If I found an unmarked bag of cash, I would keep it, wait a while to see if anyone came out and said they lost a bag of cash at the supermarket, if so I would return it to the rightful owner. If it was not possible to determine who that was, I would keep it.

CaterpillarGirl 4 years 25 weeks

Vinigritte, it has to do with this guys faith though, thats why we are talking about it.

UnDave35 4 years 25 weeks

If it had been me, I probably would've returned the $6,000 in the bag, that the man lost. ;)

UnDave35 4 years 25 weeks

If it had been me, I probably would've returned the $6,000 in the bag, that the man lost.;)

skb9850 4 years 25 weeks

I would have gave it back. It wasn't mine to begin with. One of the news shows did a test where they had an armored car drop a bag of "cash" to see what people would do. There really wasn't any cash in the bag and there was a hidden TV camera crew to capture the actions of the people. The armored car would go down the road and as they turned a corner someone would swing the door open and throw out the bag. They did this in front of 13 people, one person at a time. These were just random people on the street, going about their daily lives. Interestingly enough, all 13 people who witnessed the dropped money returned it.

skb9850 4 years 25 weeks

nyaradzom2001 4 years 25 weeks

I would return it as I have this theory that if you keep money that is not yours karma has a way of taking it back from you when you least expect it, even when I get extra change I give it back.

yesteryear 4 years 25 weeks

i know its not entirely legal... but i would have kept the money and donated the entire sum to a food bank. stealing from the rich to feed the poor has always been a dream of mine.

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