What do you make of this story?
On "jealousy": Dishonest people often rationalize and justify their dishonesty by claiming that everyone else is just as dishonest as they are.
They aren't.
I'll be most interested to see what everyone makes of this one. It's a true story, and made the national news 15 or 20 years ago.
A young man gets on the subway in NYC. The car is empty. After a bit, he notices that there's a brown paper grocery bag under his seat. He looks inside. It's filled with cash.
He gets off at the next stop and takes the bag to the nearest police station to turn it in. The desk sergeant tells him he's crazy. The other cops on duty tell him he's crazy. They say the bag probably belongs to some dope dealer or Mob numbers runner, and he ought to just keep it. Still, the young man persists, so the cops count the money--i don't recall the amount, but it was well over $100,000--and give the young man a receipt.
Just as they're finishing the paperwork, an elderly couple comes in; they are both in tears, the woman hysterical. "I know you'll think we're crazy," says the old man, "but did anyone turn in a bag of money?"
It was their life savings, and they were taking it to Florida where they would use it to buy a home and retire. Why they foolishly decided to carry cash, I don't know; I suspect they were old-school East European immigrants who traditionally don't trust banks and keep their savings hidden away somewhere in cash. At any rate, they were pathetically grateful to have their lives back, and they pressed the young man to accept some of the money as a reward.
He refused to take it.
Most of you, no doubt, will say that that young man was crazy. Maybe he was; but I'll tell you this--if I ever lose anything valuable, I hope the person who finds it is like that "crazy" young man instead of like most of you.
And so do you--all of you. And you know it.
What is the most basic law of morality, taught by every religion and philosophy that has ever existed? You know what it is: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
If that Meijer's were your business, would you still say that this behavior was perfectly OK?
If you say, "Yes," you're lying. You would think it wrong. And it would be. Q.E.D.
Everybody screws up; and everybody also hopes that others will have compassion on them, and not take their screwup as an opportunity to take advantage of them--let alone to take them for as much damage as possible, and then go and crow about it proudly.
Nobody here can honestly say that they'd appreciate being treated like that. Therefore, it's wrong.
Like I said, it's not a BIG wrong--but it's still wrong, and it's a little childish to pretend that it isn't.
If anyone here thinks I'm "jealous" of the OP and wish I were "lucky" and "smart" like him--well, I'll just say, "No, thanks."
I've "stolen" in small matters, too; but at least I knew it was wrong. To have no idea that there might be a problem here, and to want to shut down discussion when he finds, to his surprise, that he's not being universally applauded--well, I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. It's one thing to say, "I know maybe I shouldn't have done it, but it was a good deal"--but quite another to just never think about the right and wrong of it at all.