My Ethical Dilemma
When I was young I was walking through the parking lot of a grocery store and I found a wallet. I guess a guy was getting into his car or something and he dropped it. It had a lot of money in it, like maybe $500 or more and I think anyone who is faced with that can be tempted to take the money and claim they found the wallet empty. Still, I decided to do the right thing as I had been told so I went into the store and spoke with the manager and told her that I found this wallet and the owner of it should be contacted. If I had been smart I would have tried to find the owner myself, but this was before internet really and we didn't have a computer then anyway. But nonetheless I thought I was doing the right thing and I was under the impression back then that adults also wanted to do the right thing so this manager who I'd seen many times when we'd go shopping there, seemed like she would be okey and trustworthy.
Well it didn't quite work out that way because I found out from any employee who was friends with my older sister that in fact the manager gave the wallet back to the guy claiming it was empty when he found it. So chances are pretty good he pocketed the money. So the dilemma becomes do I feel good because regardless of the actions of others, I did the right thing so I can feel proud of that, or do I feel bad because the end result was the same as if I had kept the money for myself, only I of course didn't get to benefit at all from the whole honesty thing.
Keeping this in mind, I was recently faced with another such dilemma. I was going to play tennis with a friend and I was walking down the sidewalk and I found a ladies watch. A really nice one too which coincidently, fits me perfectly and I checked on the internet and its probably worth several hundred dollars. I looked around briefly but didn't see anyone who looked like they were searching for a watch. I didn't want to turn it in to the people running the tennis courts because perhaps I would have the same experience where they just pocket this valuable item for themselves and the real owner never gets it back. On the other hand, I didn't want to have to go running around to try to find the owner by putting up signs, taking out ads and doing all kinds of other things. That's just too much for me. Besides, I didn't want people to call me or have my phone number and I already lose half my emails as it is to spam. It takes me days to dig through my email pile while is why if it takes a little longer for me to respond to you, I'm sorry, that's why, its nothing personal. Believe me because I LOVE to hear from people and read their naughty fantasies and experiences.
So is fate trying to test me? Well, I gave it some thought over a couple of days and spoke to a couple of friends and what I concluded was that it would be unethical to keep the watch without at least making a reasonable effort to find the owner of it. This isn't to say I should make an unreasonable effort, but the watch does have a serial number on it so maybe I can contact the company and see where it leads. If I can get contact info on the owner, I can ask them what happened to their watch and if they say they lost it I can ask where and when. See, I would do that just to make sure they didn't sell it to someone else who then lost it. Pretty smart huh?
Anyway, I concluded that following up on the serial number was a reasonable effort but if after expending a reasonable effort to return the watch, I couldn't find the real owner, maybe it was okey to keep it. Its one of those ethical things where for me, its not enough that I do the right thing and then pass it off as someone else's problem the way I did before. So if you have any thoughts on this or suggestions of how else I can handle it and still be ethical about it, let me know.
5 Comments:
Well, I did what I thought was a reasonable effort. I went to a watch store and they were able to contact the company who said they didn't have a registration for that serial number. So, whoever bought it may have never sent in the registration card. They also told me the watch was probably worth around $3,000. That's a pretty nice watch so I decided to go back over to the tennis court and ask the people there if anyone had reported a lost watch or was asking about one in the last few days. They said that as far as they knew, no one was asking about a lost watch. Since the watch was worth a lot more than I thought, I did put up a sign on the bulletin board at the tennis court with an email address saying I found a ladies watch but of course I left out the details so the person will have to tell me what it looks like for confirmation. I think I've done a reasonable amount of work to find the real owner now so if no one comes forward I'll feel pretty good that I did the right thing and I won't have any problem wearing this watch. I think from the karma point of view, I found a thing, tried to do the right thing but ultimately if I end up with it, I think it is just good fortune that I should enjoy.
Romantic that I am, I always assume that the lost item may be of personal, if not financial value and make the effort. I suggest that you also list it on Craigslist-LA -Lost and Found:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/laf/
(where you can remain anonymous)
Perusing that list it is nice to see that there are lots of honest people doing the right thing!
I think you are doing as much as you can, and stannous flouride does make a good point.
But something that valuable, the owner may have, or eventually will, contact the police. It's possible the person may not even think about going back to the tennis court and made out a police report. In any case, it might not be a bad idea to check with the local authorities to see if anyone has reported a missing watch with that much value applied to it.
Another thing: something that expensive may be insured. That's why it's important for the owner to file the report with the police.
Those are some good ideas and I think the Craigslist one is what I'll go with. I think that's pretty reasonable and while there's no guarantee that the person will go back to the Tennis courts or check Craigslist, I think the idea is I want to make a reasonable effort because I think that's the ethical thing to do. Anyway, thanks for the comments and the ideas, I appreciate that you guys are involved and interacting. That's cool!
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