Moral Dilemma - honest, or just plain stupid?

Hi Mise

Oh I've been in a similar position before of being 'nice' and then wondering if I'm cutting myself off from good things etc. But what I think is that if the universe was trying to help you by putting that £10 note in your way, then because you acted honourably and have encouraged positive karma, the universe will probably find a greater way of rewarding you. I hope so anyway. Good luck and let us know.

Elfin x

Thanks Elfin. Maybe I should get a lotto ticket?:)I actually got a book last year called 'The Nice Factor' which dealt with how being 'nice' is actually detrimental for us. I didn't actually get around to reading it though - maybe I should dig it out again. Mise xx

Hiya Mise,

I had a similar thing happen to me with a fiver a few years ago, I very stupidly asked at the bus stop if anyone had dropped the fiver and a man said yes... only later did I realise that it was the other man who had turned the corner and walked away. Any how, I survived to pay day through the generosity of a friend and now a few years later, I am very lucky to have a lot in my life to be grateful for - one of those is a huge Karmic bank account with loads of good deeds waiting for me and cover when ever I need it.

What I am trying to say is that you may feel stupid now, but the rewards of honesty are far greater and longer lasting than if you had not used your moral compass! Good on you, the universe is smiling on you (even though you may not feel it yet!)

C xxx

Never mind Mise, you're so nice that I'm sure another tenner will come your way. Next time, don't think about it. It's a different matter if you actually see someone drop money, or if you find a purse with someone's name and address inside.

Thank you Brigantia and Cherrybug. I was brought up conditioned into being honest at all times which in many ways is good, but in other ways a bit of a burden. I think its more the guilt factor that stopped me taking the money, rather than the honesty factor. I'll just have to see how it pans out.

I once did that myself - I found a tenner outside a shop (there was no one around who could have dropped it) and took it into the shop and handed it over. As I came outside again, I thought, 'You idiot!'

You did do the right thing, as said Karma will see you right.

When my daughter was 9 we were outside supermarket when she found £20 on the floor. She said she should hand it in, So we went back in shop, handed it in gave name & address and phone number and were told to go back in 6 months and if it hadn't been collected it was hers. After 6 months we went back and they told us someone had claimed it (one of the staff no doubt, or is that me being synical?) I wasn't happy they hadn't contacted us to say it had gone and was sort of lesson was that to teach a child that there was no reward for honesty? Anyway, the manager came to talk to me, yes I was Very annoyed with them! He gave my daughter a few freebies, nothing exciting but she was happy!

I'm sure you will be rewarded for your honesty to Mise.

Linda x

A few months ago i had a similar experience. My youngest and i were talking about cosmic ordering and he said he didn't believe in it. I said ok i'll order a tenner for me, a tenner for you and a fiver for luck. next day there it was 25 quid on the pavement outside the co - op. Moral dilemma time - perhaps it was a pensioners money, perhaps the birthday money of a small child - the milk money of a new borns single mum - even though i badly needed 25 quid at the time, like a good girl in i went into the co - op and left a message there.to say that i had found a certain amount and to phone my number to claim. I hadn't been back in the house 10 minutes when the phone rang. A woman told me the cash was the last of her teenage daughters wages and she'd dropped it outside the coop on her way to town with her boyfriend. Anyhow, up came the woman for the cash, I casually said somethng about her daugher being glad to have it back when she got back from town but thewoman told me that she'd come up for her daughter coz BGT was on tv and her daughter didn't want to miss Susan Boyle singing. I was gobsmacked at this, the money meant so much to the girl that she couldn't have got off her backside to come to thank me personally herself, Subo was more important to her than 25 quid. but what was more horrendous to me was the fact her mother didn't see anything the matter with this. If it were my kid i'd have made them go and get their own money and thanked whoever it was personally. I raged quietly to myself for a while for being a fool to have handed it back but then realised if I hadn't, i literaly would have been no better morally than the girl , or the mother, I was fuming about. I suppose at the end of the day, as long as you always try to do the right thing, even if everyone else seems to be doing the wrong thing and getting away with it. you will always be able to take the moral high ground even if doesn't make you any richer and you still fume at yourself occasionaly for being so stupid and have to keep reminding yourself it was the right thing to do.

BXX

Thank you for your input Balla. I'm amazed at the prompt reply of the Universe for delivering the exact amount. Maybe we should just accept what we are given without questioning the source? If someone wins the lotto it's at the cost of all the other people who haven't won but paid their money. Maybe the girl in question had ripped someone else off and the Universe was rewarding her with a bit of a lesson by taking £25 away from her. It's such a difficult issue. It's annoying that she did not thank you personally. Its like holding doors open for people, or letting someone pass on the pavement and they don't say thankyou. There was a story on the news this week of a guy in Cumbria who found a bag with £10,000 cash. He handed it in to the police. The owners claimed it and gave him £200. I think I'm going to ask the Universe for the money back, but from a less morally fraught source! Mise xx

...or you could just pop into the shop and ask if anyone has claimed it yet?!?!!?

lynn

That's a good idea, Lynn - may pluck up the nerve and do it. On a positive note, my internet keeps going down and spoke to person at Virgin Media on Tuesday. She said she would refund me £40! Looks like the Universe did find another way of getting the money to me! Mise xx

...what an interesting thread - reading your dilemma and everyone's thoughts has been very thought provoking. I'm 99% in favour of "doing the right thing"... I once found a wallet at an ATM cashpoint when I went to withdraw £10 - it was a Lloyds Bank before they merged with TSB - I handed in the wallet and the cashier said she'd inform the local police station etc - I called the bank later that day to check the owner had received it (I hadn't looked inside the wallet, so had no idea of the owner's ID) - anyway, turned out it had been claimed and as I'd not given my details, I can only hope I was subliminally thanked by the owner, for being honest enough to not even open his wallet up!! I didn't want any money for handing it in: I just wanted to know the rightful owner got his wallet back!! 2 years later, I was a customer of the same bank when the merger with TSB was confirmed (not that I think the Universe had a reason for that!?) Love to All, Row xx