We’ve all heard of stories, seemingly beyond rhyme or reason, where someone is going about their day-to-day business when they unexpectedly find a big stash of cash. People love those stories because it always begs the same question, what would you do? Well, you may not approve but here’s my honest answer.

There are places such as airports where police create sting operations; intentionally leaving a bag of money, waiting to be found. The money is subsequently followed to an exit point which is when the police pounce and arrest. At first glance this may seem reasonable; either the money was legitimately forgotten or it is dirty money; drugs etc. In the absence of facts, is that a reasonable assertion?

I’m thinking at this point I’ve probably split my readers. Some of you will argue that dirty money is untouchable and that forgetful people are innocent. The rest of you are probably saying “finders keepers”, “God works in mysterious ways” and “run like hell”!

If I found money in a busy public place such as an airport, I would hand it in and ask for a receipt. Other situations would also lead me to report the incident, for example, if I found it as part of my work for an employer. In all these situations I am making a risk assessment of getting caught in a sting.

But if I am being perfectly honest, there might exist a certain set of circumstances in which I might keep the money. For example, if there was a complete lack of identification and if it was out of work hours and the location was reasonably isolated, then I might make a decision based on specific circumstances:

• does the money genuinely look and feel real?

• are the notes of different denominations or are they all the same value?

• how large is the amount of money? - hundreds? - tens of thousands?

• are there significant batches of notes with sequential serial numbers?

If I keep the money in certain circumstances, does that make me a thief? I say absolutely not. I despise thieves and would be happy to see their fingers removed. When it comes to money, I consider myself a very honest person. If I’m given money to hold, regardless of size, I can return it without temptation. And if I knew you made a legitimate mistake, again I would return the money. I have my own money, I don’t need to beg or steal.

But being honest doesn’t guarantee brownie points. Once, me and some friends found a wallet with credit cards. I located the owner by calling one of the banks. The owner collected their wallet but later called and said there had been cash in the wallet. His implication was that maybe we took the money and returned the rest. Yeah, thanks mate. Would I do the same again? - yes, if the owner was traceable.

But part of my reasoning for keeping money would be whether I played an active role (eg. robbery) or passive circumstance. I simply don’t do robbery but in a passive situation, the “finders keepers” rule might apply for a few reasons:

• First, the person that disposed of the money is missing from the equation, potentially making a legal case very difficult… unless of course you were setup.

• Secondly, the absence of explanation does not make the origin of the money illegal or immoral… at that point, the life cycle of the money is simply unknown. On the other hand, sequential serial numbers, for example, would lead me to reasonably conclude that the money is dirty, thus it would be correct to hand it to the police.

Every situation is different and who’s to say what will happen to the money further up the chain? We may also consider that facts can very often defy reason. For example, sometimes people die and leave their money to charity instead of “reasonably” leaving it to their spouse. Who’s to say how or why the money was there?