The Moral System

[Jinxzy]

Hey Everyone,

So yesterday my friend and I had class together. Next to the computer I sit at was a lovely white jacket. I waited threw the whole class, near the end to asked if anyone was missing a jacket. No one clamed it, so my friend suggested that I take the jacket home with me and if I didn't want it I could give it to my boyfriend. He puts it in my arms and then we head out to the parking lot. When I get home I start to feel bad about what I have done. So I empty the pockets to find a pair of headphones. I wash the jacket and put the headhpones back into the pocket. The next day I bring the jacket to the office and told them I found it and wanted to return it to the rightful owner.

Yet my friend keeps laughing cause he thinks it was a weak to take it and not keep it. I know In my heart I know I couldn't live with it, cause hey I would want my jacket back if I lost it.

So my question to you wonderful people is have you ever had this happen to you? That your moral compass turns you around cause you know it's wrong. Have you kept things you wish you haven't? Or is it finders keepers?

Let us talk about the moral system and the five finger discout.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I don't recall having a situation like that, but I think I would be in the same boat as you and not felt good about it.
As you said it just wasn't yours, and the owner probably wanted it back. I know I was upset when I had forgotten my jacket in the Cinema, and I returned as fast as possible, but the jacket was gone

 

[Lugbzurg]

"Finders-Keepers"? Theft is Theft. Coming up with a juvenile rhyme doesn't justify your actions.

 

[Vault101]

in that situation I would leave it where I found it,so mabye the person could come back and find it once they realised

 

[Aidinthel]

I wouldn't have even taken the jacket in the first place. I won't pretend to be some paragon of morality, but that sounds a bit more expensive than I could rationalize just taking.

 

[somonels]

What kind of douche would take a man's outerwear?
I blame your friend more than you, he didn't have the cohones to take it himself, forced it on you and then laughs at you despite his own inability.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Better to turn it in - actually, in some cases if no one claims something for a long enough time it ends up being given to the finder. Usually a year I think most places. If someone doesn't come to claim something they lost in a year, they don't want it. That's how my grandma got a very expensive scarf she loves that she found in a bathroom of a department store a few years back. She turned it in and thought no more of it, but they took her name/address and a year later they mailed it to her with a note explaining that no owner had claimed it so it was hers as far as they were concerned.

 

[dyre]

Wow, seriously? That situation is a no-brainer, obviously you either leave the jacket or hand it to the nearest office / lost-and-found. Whoever lost their jacket is likely going to come back looking for it, and a jacket isn't something you don't care about losing (like a bottle of water or something). You did the right thing, and frankly your friend is an ass to think otherwise.

 

[chadachada123]

Twice I have found purses laying around while outside of class.

Twice I have, in some way, turned it to a place where it could be easily found by its owners, despite being in a position where I could VERY easily take the purse or its contents without having any chance of being caught.

The first time, in a classroom, after everyone had left, I put it at the front of the room, in the teacher's area, where only professors or grad students would reach it.

The second time, out in public, it was resting on a ledge outside of a building (but still slightly out-of-sight). I stood there for a good twenty seconds contemplating what to do. I then saw someone exiting the building who clearly worked there, asked what the building was (university building), and told him about the purse. He took it inside.

Edit: But do I think that your friend is a jackass like everyone else here? No, not really. Some of us have moral compasses that align elsewhere. If you'd pocket a $20 bill lying on the ground (and you WOULD, you hypocrites), why would doing so to a jacket be much different? Not that I wouldn't leave the jacket, myself, only that I don't jump on the morals of people that would.

 

[Stomperchomper]

Found a hundred dollar bill on the floor at school a few weeks ago, kept that as there isn't a good way to find who it belonged too.

"Hey, who's hundred is this?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNiR5ZTb_MA

 

[Lionsfan]

I've taken stuff before, but never like that. I work at a pool, and if I see something that's been in our lost and found for more than 3 months I'll take it. It's usually just gym shorts or a pair of headphones (cheap ones mind you), but I've taken stuff before. Never shoplifted or taken money from something someone left, but I would be lying if I said I've never taken stuff

 

[Right Hook]

I'd do the "proper thing" in this sort of situation, like at a school, where there is a decent chance the item could be reunited with its owner through an office or a lost and found. Somewhere else I would check to see if there was something that would let me know who it belonged to, if not I would probably take it, if it was something I wanted. If it doesn't seem likely the owner will get it back than I'd prefer to have it over some random person, it's not ideal but it's the truth. Anyway, if you really care about something and it actually matters a significant amount to you, you won't lose it in the first place.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

You took the jacket?

Dude...that's just mean.

Yeah, good on you for bringing it back, but that person might never know that the jacket is in the office. Hopefully they check, but in the mean time, call your friend a jackass, and don't use sarcasm. Be sincere. Inform them of their unnecessarily dickish ways.

 

[F4LL3N]

I stole $15 in 1st grade, it was some kid's excursion money. I confessed sortly after the teacher went through my bag and didn't find it. That was one of the few things I've stolen in my life and I'm generally against stealing unless it belongs to someone with lots of money who didn't "truly" earn it. I would contribute this instance to be one of the sole reasons I'm against stealing.

About 6 months ago I found $50 on the ground and felt pretty bad about keeping it, even though I assumed it was from a rich miner. Taking it to the police would be pointless, and I would have notified the person if I seen them drop it (I always do)... So I don't really consider that to be against my morals.

I can't really speak of anything else.

 

[Nouw]

Good on you for bringing it back ^^. I can't remember stealing so I suppose I did return something. If I did something wrong, it would go on my conscious and I would remember .

 

[Kae]

Well I kinda used to be a thief when I was a kid, so yeah I have been in worse situations, as in stealing stuff directly from other people's backpacks and sneaking into offices and stealing stuff, that being said, that was when I was a kid, I wouldn't really steal anything now, I mean now I can't even pirate stuff because it seems wrong, and well recently I actually tell the people at stores when they are giving me more change than they were supposed to, and a couple of months ago I chased a car for 5 blocks because the girl forgot her credit car at the restaurant I worked on, fortunately street lights stopped her, so yeah I think I would have done the same thing, except washing the thing, anyway I like to think I'm a nice person now.

 

[Logiclul]

You should give it back because it holds personal value (personal attachment to the jacket in some quantity) to the owner. If it were 10 dollars then take it, as there is no personal attachment generally to some 10 dollar bill.

Your boyfriend is probably pissed he isn't getting that jacket though

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Depends. If I find money lying around and I didn't see anyone drop it, unless someone goes around asking, I keep it. I mean if you go around asking people if they lost twenty bucks most are going to say yes. Recently I found a text book left behind in a class room, it was for my class and that class was only offered in that room at that time so I took and sent an email to everyone in the class, multiple times. No one has responded yet. Which is a shame for them because text books ain't cheep.

 

[Hattingston]

Taking it back was the right thing to do.

I found a leather jacket on the tennis court my freshmen year. I asked the other members of the team if it was anyone's, and no one claimed it. Tennis practice is after school, so lost and found was closed at this point. I took it home with the intention of bringing it back the next day...and forgot about it for four years. No joke. My parents found it lying around and asked where it had come from and had hung it up in my closet between my suit and dress shirts, which were seldom touched, and me being me, I simply didn't remember it was there.

Found it a few weeks ago. I'd bring it back, but whoever left it there has graduated by now. Feel a little guilty, but I don't know what else I could do. Another odd point is that it fits me(I didn't try it on until I rediscovered it), so I brought it back to college with me.

 

[Arakasi]

If the item were small and indistinguishable, say a $10 note, I would keep it.
If it were clearly personal and easily identifiable, I would do my best to hand it over to the original owner.