Dollars. On a sidewalk. Really.
This morning, early, I was walking in the drizzle to find an open store to buy a paper and fresh milk, and what do I see but a handful of paper money – more than $10, less than $20 – on the sidewalk. No one was out; the houses nearby were closed and dark. The only other artificial thing I found near it was a week-old TriMet all-zone ticket, on the grass. (My hunch? The ticket’s unrelated.) No other possible identifiers – no wallet, no ID – to let you know who’d had that money before.
The money is now drying in my place.
I actually feel a little weird about this. Does this count as ill-gotten gain? The part of me that (I hope) would return someone’s wallet – not that I’ve ever been in that position – told me to look for signs of who it belonged to. I did. Whether I looked all that hard is debatable. But another part of me said “It’s too easy for someone to lie about this, to say ‘Yeah! I dropped that!’ ” Yet another part of me thought, “Do I look like I’m stealing?” (Yes I do indeed think thoughts like that.) Finally, I placed it in my backpack, and continued walking, and did my errand.
I’d be a lousy crook. ;-)