You find $250 in cash on the sidewalk. There's no one close by to claim it, so you bend over and pick it up. What do you do next? Hand it to the authorities or pocket it? If you decide to keep it, what do you do with the money, how do you spend it, and why? If you decide to hand it in to the authorities, what's behind that decision?
According to Google conversion when I checked, $250 is about #103,937.50. Let's say it's approximately #104,000 in my local currency (Naira).
I live in a country where people no longer have a conscience, even if they do, they prefer to brush it aside. Nobody trusts anybody. Due to how corrupt the country is today, the authorities can't be trusted. Most authorities are being bribed to do dirty jobs so should one stress his/herself just to bring the authorities to witness anything?. I read that there are laws guiding missing items such as money, I don't know about another country, but for my own country, as bad as things have gotten, I doubt that it is practiced.
If I found $250
in cash on the sidewalk and there's no one close by to claim it, I will just look past it and walk away, that's what I would personally do, however, I am certain that I would be tempted to pick it up after thinking about my problems and things I could solve with it but I would most certainly walk past it and if any other person decides to pick it after I had already walked past the place, then it's fine, besides its not my money.
However, this topic says
"There's no one close by to claim it, so you bend over and pick it up. What do you do next? Hand it to the authorities or pocket it? If you decide to keep it, what do you do with the money, how do you spend it, and why? If you decide to hand it into the authorities, what's behind that decision?".
After picking up the money, I won't hand it to the authorities, I will pocket it.
Here is why.
If I hand it over to the authorities, how would they trace the owner? Especially when it's cash I picked somewhere were finding the owner won't be easy. It's not like the money has an ID card on it or any means of identifying the owner. I don't know about other countries but for my country, I know that whoever I hand it to in a bid to be a good person would end up sharing the money amongst themselves(especially those who know about the money). Instead of doing that, (who doesn't like good things?) I will pocket it.
What do I do with the money?
To be honest, I will use the money to resolve some of the problems I am faced with financially and if there is a balance remaining after settling financial issues, I will use the rest to make myself in ways I know would make me happy.
How do you spend it, and why?
Considering the list of things that are currently making me worry, having this amount through this means is something I would tag as a blessing in disguise. Out of $250, I'm going to take out $100 to settle my debts. This is important because it's already passed the due date and I wouldn't want to let repayment remain overdue for a longer period.
Donation.
When I get to church, I won't have to mention that I picked the money on the sidewalk, I won't have to do that. I would just donate $100 to the church's welfare department. This is a department that takes care of reaching out to the less privileged in terms of food provision and cash. This to me is far better than giving it to authorities in my country who would only share it among themselves.
Enjoyment.
I would use $20 to buy a big data bundle so I won't have to bother about running out of data for a while.
I would then use the balance which is $30 to restock the makeup products I've run out of for business. Even though the $30 isn't enough to buy it all, at least it would help get a few products.
I will make sure to pray for forgiveness for spending money that isn't mine, funny enough, there was nobody to claim it, then I will appreciate God for the blessing in disguise.