Honesty

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I must admit I'd probably take the money. I suppose I could consider myself fairly selfish when it's someone I don't know involved; it wouldn't be much of an ethical issue for me. After all, I don't know them and most likely won't encounter them again, so there's no obvious problems that could arise.

 

[fractalfeline]

I must admit I'd probably take the money. I suppose I could consider myself fairly selfish when it's someone I don't know involved; it wouldn't be much of an ethical issue for me. After all, I don't know them and most likely won't encounter them again, so there's no obvious problems that could arise.

Thanks for being honest!

Oh the irony.

 

[rlodge]

I actually had something similar to that happen to me a few months back.

I was helping a friend do a few repairs on her house. She had bought some items that she couldn't use and asked me to take them back, get the money back and buy the correct items. While I was in the customer service line, the cashier was counting out the money for the returned items. At the same time, a manager came over to give her some money she needed for her drawer. I didn't see it immediately but the cashier gave me the $100 that she was supposed to put in her drawer.

It was about an hour and a half later, at home, that I realized that I had $100 that I shouldn't have. I called the store, told them who I was and gave them my phone number. I told them to check that drawer and see if it was short any money and if it was, call me back and let me know how much.

They called back and said it was short $100 so I took the money back. In the long run I made out OK. I felt better because if that drawer had been short at the end of the day, the girl would have lost that money out of her pay. Also, the store gave me a $50 gift card for a future purchase for bringing the money back.

I may have only gotten $50 instead of $100 but it was $50 more than I had and I had a clear conscience.

 

[mattura]

What a lovely story!

 

[ejweb]

Easy answer; don't take it in the first place! Merely calmly draw attention to the teller of his/her mistake so I would receive only what I'm suppose to. Money is not a means to life. As the saying goes; it is the root of all evils. And it's obvious from what I've seen going on the past year or so in this society...

 

[ferricadooza]

I think I would have let them know about the mistake too. Especially if the mistake could lead to the teller being sacked.

But...if the transaction was with a cash machine I think would definitely keep the money, banks are having a very bad press here in the UK ATM. With banking executives recieving obscene bonuses while thousands lose their jobs countrywide. If the same thing happened at a cash machine I would take the cash and walk away with a smile.


ferricadooza

 

[ShadowmasterX]

I would have told her, and I would have been honest about it. Isnt it worth not having the extra money than having a guilty consciousness that wont let you sleep ? I think that I would not have felt good for the rest of the week if I did something like that =[.

 

[penarth]

this is a hard one...

when i was younger I found a wallet with over £100 in it and I turned it into the police and was given a £10 reward off the person whose wallet it was..

with the situation in a bank.. I would be much more tempted to take the money because money is alot harder to come by now and much more valuable to me than it was when I was younger... however I would probably have been honest about it. She'd lose her job over it and I know if I was in her position I would hope the customer would be honest with me.

Ceri

 

[dharshan]

In my opinion, being a very normal person, I would have simply walked away with it! being said that, if I did something nice, like returning it, i will have thoughts of "IF" later..
"what IF i took it" and so on.. and at this situation as it's a machine thats malfunctioning and giving u a lotta money, as a human i would act same way..after all "computers are supposed to work 100% accurate every time, IF the given input is correct"

Cheers!

 

[kinley3]

ferricadooza and dharshan: if you feel like taking money from an ATM won't have repercussions then you should think again.

How do you think the money gets in the ATM? It's put there by humans.

Who do you think would have to deal with the shortage later? The person who put the money in the ATM.

They keep track of these things. It's not like they put a whole bunch of money in and forget about it. So to say that you would use a scapegoat like an ATM to walk away with money but give it back if a teller handed it to you doesn't make much sense.

 

[DefecTalisman]

I would have brought attention to the matter. Let the teller know that they where wrong.
There are many reasons why I would do the right thing, the teller would have to pay in the $300. If they had short paid me I would expect them to sort it out, now how could I expect that when I would have stiffed them.

Its happend a few times at the bank to me, both ways. Every time it has been sorted out.
I had a funny one at a McDonalds drive through. They made me wait like 15mins, in that time they passed me most of my order(except the chicken burger). Then when they gave me the rest of my order, they doubled up on the stuff they gave me before. Now in this sittuation I drove off with double my order, I only took it because the service was terrible and they made me wait 15mins for a chicken burger

 

[joejv4]

To me it boils down to ethics.

I would have stopped her at $200 and made sure my deposit was correct.

I had one of these dilemmas yesterday, and it really was not a dilemma for me. We ordered a bunch of stuff from the local pizzaria over the phone. When I went to pick up our order, I walked to the beverage cooler and picked up a 2L bottle of soda, then stood in line at the counter to pay and get our order.

The kid at the register got all of our different food orders together and rang them up. I paid, he gave me change. Then it occurred to me I didn't see him ring up the soda, so I asked if he got the soda, he hadn't, to I had him ring that up and I paid for it.

Why did I do this? Simply because it was the right thing to do, and I consider myself an ethical person.

What makes an ethical person? The person who will always try to do the right thing, even when nobody is looking.