Jan was crossing a city street last week when she saw a thick envelope lying on the road. She picked it up, crossed to the footbath, looked inside and saw it was packed with cash.
Without considering the alternative, she took it straight to the nearest police station and handed it in. They counted it and told her it contained several thousand dollars.
“I was telling this story to my husband and he told me he did a similar thing years ago in New York.
“He found a wallet with several hundred dollars in cash and several credit cards. He took it back to where he was staying with an American couple and they argued for an hour about whether to keep the cash and return the rest, or return it all.
“He was a cash-strapped young tourist, so the temptation to keep it was strong. The husband said he should keep the money but the wife said he should return it all.
“In the end, he returned it all. The bloke gave him no reward, just bought him a beer, shook his hand and left him to drink the beer by himself.
“We then discussed whether the amount of cash involved influenced our decisions and whether we had an amount we’d keep. I said $20, no more; he said $100.
“I’d be interested to know what your readers think.”
•••
Henry has an old dog that he walks most mornings. The dog is so old, he’s now worried about it dying on a walk.
“I’m not sure what I’d do if he died on his morning walk, especially as I don’t have a car most days.
“I was telling my wife and she said I’d have to leave him and go home and get the wheelbarrow.
“That would be distressing for anybody who walked past.
“Then this morning, I was talking to my elderly neighbour. He said dogs rarely die on their walk. He said they die at home: ‘And you’ll know because that will be the day he doesn’t want to go for his walk.’
“Is this the experience of others?”
•••
Ted has just returned home after a stint in hospital.
“I haven’t been in a hospital since I was lad, about 65 years ago.
“The biggest difference is that they no longer have the lady who used to come around with her trolley selling things, even cigarettes.”
In a similar vein, Anne has just been to the dentist.
“That’s an experience that has really changed for the better.
“Needles used to be so painful. And my dentist used to operate his drill with a foot treadle.”
•••
We recently mentioned how, in the early days of passenger flights, people on the plane would clap when it landed safely.
Well, Enid says it happened to her recently on a flight to New Zealand.
“We were coming into Queenstown and it was very windy. On the first approach, the pilot pulled out and the plane climbed sharply.
“The pilot announced on the PA that he would give it one more try. If it failed, we’d have to fly to Dunedin and catch a bus back.
“He got it down with a thud and everybody clapped. I’m not sure if it was because we were alive or because we didn’t have to bus it back from Dunedin.”
•••
What’s the worst thing you’ve seen in a supermarket?
We’ve heard of people putting their finger in a peanut butter jar to sample it, people replacing small eggs in the carton with large ones, and someone throwing an expensive vine-ripened tomato into her bag of cheap ones.
Now Penny tells us she saw a man help himself to a handful of nuts from the nut dispenser, then walk off eating them.
“And I happened to see him return and do it again.
“I reported him to the shop assistant, but he didn’t seem to care.”
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