Thursday, May 24, 2007

What would you do ?


I was recently waiting at the bagage claim at the Dubai airport. As i stood waiting for my bags to show up, something on the floor caught my eye. About 20 feet away, i saw what looked like, a 500 dirhams note. Obviously someone had dropped it, unknowingly.
I sat there thinking, 500 dirhams is a lot of money, to have dropped. There were only two questions in my mind. Should i take it ? Or shouldnt i take it ? And as i dwindled from should I to shouldnt I, a man clad in brown pants and a yellow shirt, walked up, between me and the 500 dirhams. Obviously, I wasnt the only one who had seen it. He stood there for 2 seconds and then bent down and picked up the note, looked at it, and saw it was real. He opened his wallet, planted the note in it and walked on by, as though nothing had happened. He didnt look back, he didnt look left, he didnt look right ! He walked on straight to his trolley and waited for his bags to roll by.
500 dirhams while waiting for your bagage, is easy money.
My question is what would you do ? And we often see lost money in places. So what do you do ? Pick up the money or walk on by ? And most importantly why ?
I have some outstanding insight into this. But tell me first, what would you do and why !!

6 comments:

Rob said...

hi,just passing by, saw your post, i wouldv taken the money if noone was around, but if there was poeple around i would wait to see what would happen, i would feel to greedy to jump and take it, infront of everyone. but i if i saw someone looking for it, and i had it, i would return it to them. like your post about saying sorry. take care.

Anuj :) said...

Hi Ma'am,
If there are no claimers, i would take the money but give it to someone who is in need of it.. i wont let it go wasted or be UNUSABLE to anyone. Instead i would take it BUT wouldnt use it. Coz i would have a conscience which wouldnt let me use the money, coz it doesnt belong to me. Someone wud have worked really hard to earn, and i have no right to just spend it. Instead would give it to someone, and the person who was the owner of the money would only get the blessing.

Vishal said...

I really feel I wouldn't have taken the money.
Reason being--it would make me uncomfortable and i'd feel guilty and that i'm doing something wrong-i'd rather leave it there and mind my own business..and not get into a conflict with myself..

Unknown said...

Hey that has happened to me in past but it was not 500 dilhrams it was 20 rs...i picked it up & gave it to someone who was asking for it. But if it is 500dhrms i dont know what i would have done, i will surely like to return it to whom it belongs to or a person who is in need. Thanks

Nupur said...

I would pick the money and give it to the security or airport guards saying that its lost money.

Unknown said...

I guess if the owner wasn't around and nobody had noticed I'd taken it - & wait, lemme finish !! And I've done this with small change etc. - I'd give it to the next needy person I met. Honest !!