A scout is Honest, A Scout is Trustworthy

[pchadbo]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110609/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_found_riches_returned

 

This article has started a discussion of what would you do in this situation. It seems that I am in the minority in agreeing with the action that tis man took in returning the found riches. Am I just paranoid that the values that we try to instill are no longer the norm or am I just reading too much into the inherent greed of my co-workers?

[moosetracker]

Nice story Pchadbo.. Either the writer or the guy who found the money had a sense of humor while writing it too..

 

You always hope you will act the right way when faced with the situation. I hope I would. In that particular situation I know I would. Why? Because he was at an ATM with a camera on him and had probably used his card to get into the ATM cubical.. No way would I want Police to track me down & get my picture in the paper as someone who attempted to get away with 17,000.. Much better to have a nice, humorous write-up.. And hope for a reward for being a good-Dobie..

 

Reminds me of when I went to a bank to have some money added to my savings book.. Well the teller added in my bank account.. I was walking out and just glanced at the amount.. Imagine the shock on a poor college students face to find several million dollars dropped into their account.. I did go back and have it straightened out, but not without some thought of flight to some tropical island with the loot!!

[CalicoPenn]

I don't think I would read too much into this as far as values go. "Finders Keepers" has been a meme in many societies for a very long time - yet I believe few people really follow that line of thinking.

 

It seems to me (and I'm just extrapolating here based on what I've seen) that during economic downturns, we're more likely to repeat the "finders keepers" mantra than when we feel economically confident. If your co-workers have spent the last 3 years putting off vacation trips farther than the next state over, or that new car purchase, etc., then I wonder if it would mean they'd be more likely to bring up "finders keepers" more as a fantasy, but would still do the right thing anyway.

 

More importantly, Senor Tacos is one of the best Mexican Restaurants in the area - though you wouldn't know it by it's mini-strip mall location. And Robert Adams is pretty representative of the folks that live in the Rolling Meadows/Arlington Heights/Palatine area. I know him as an aquaintance at a restaurant we both frequent (brief chats about the weather, the Bears, the Cubs, the Hawks and the Wolves) and I am not surprised by this at all.

[BDPT00]

 

 

*** I sure hope our Scouts don't act that way. Doing the right thing just because somebody is watching?! That's not what we teach when we discuss ethics. I didn't find the write-up humorous, and a good turn is done without expectation of reward.

 

Pchadbo, I hope you're not in the minority in here. The guy did what was right. Is that not what we're trying to teach our Scouts to do? In NYLT, we teach ethics. The punch line is usually that you should do what's right, even when nobody is watching. Pretty simple concept, but obviously not followed by everyone.

BDPT00

 

 

[CalicoPenn]

Time for an update.

 

Turns out that Robert is not all that honest after all. He did indeed find that bag of money - but he didn't find it outside the Senor Tacos in Rolling Meadows, he found it outside the Walgreens in Midlothian, which is where the armored car company had picked it up (and then promptly lost it).

 

He still had no intention of keeping it, but he hadn't told his workplace that he would be in Midlothian so when he found the money outside the Walgreens, instead of just turning it in there and risking that his bosses would find out he wasn't where he was supposed to be, he took it with him and "found" it in Rolling Meadows.

 

Now he's been charged with filing a false police report and is being fined $500 - all because he was hoping to meet a woman in Midlothian on company time.