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Author Topic: Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?  (Read 3405 times)

Koltar

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Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?
« on: December 27, 2007, 12:51:01 AM »
Today I find a Twenty dollar bill on the floor of the store on the customer side of our checkout counter.  It was right where someone would drop it if they were going through their wallet.

So I called the manager next highest up from me.

 Now, remember....VERY busy day with returns and a storewide sale. (Everything in store is automatically 30% off)

My next up the chain-of-command manager tells me to just keep the 20. Its too long time-wise to figure out who it might belong to . As busy as the Mall is - there is probably no way the person realizes they dropped it on the floor at our store.  He tells me to buy myself some pizza withit.


 That doesn't make sense to me - but I don't tell him that. Then I call the Mall's Lost & Found/service desk and tell them that if anyone mentions losing a 20 dollar bill - then they should call me. I give the girl that answered my cell phone number. She knows that I'm a manager in the mall.


Right now the twenty is still in my wallet - just turned a different direction from the rest of my bills and behind a small business card - so I know uts not really my money.

What would you guys do in a similar situation?

Does this mean in D&D terms that I'm actually Lawful Good in alignment ? Or just Neutral Good?

- Ed C.
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUn-eN8mkDw&feature=rec-fresh+div

This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
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Werekoala

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Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2007, 01:21:14 AM »
If it were me, I'd put the $20 where I could find it easily and wait for someone to return for it.

Its highly doubtful that someone would, but they might.

After a week or so, I'd donate the $20 to some charity or other.



No, really.








What?
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Koltar

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« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2007, 01:34:00 AM »
I'll give it a week .

 And yeah - I thought about doing the charity thing too.

If no one asks about it before we shut down the store on its last day - then I'll take it and make Twenty dollars worth of GURPS Lite 4/e to be handed out free at the New Store location - that way it indirectly benefits gamers, browsers and customers.

 If someone asks after that point - I'll give them 20 out of my wallet. But they better have the right date and details...only two possible people on this forum besides me are from this city's area - so no cheating

- Ed C.
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUn-eN8mkDw&feature=rec-fresh+div

This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WnjVUBDbs

Still here, still alive, at least Seven years now...

Pete

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Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2007, 01:47:15 AM »
Would putting the twenty in an envelope marked "Lost" and keeping it by the register, hidden from the customers, just in case someone claims it and you're not there be a good idea?

And by my estimation it looks like you're Lawful Good.  You should look into rolling up a Paladin...or at least creating a GURPS equivalent.
 

Koltar

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« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2007, 02:04:18 AM »
Quote from: Pete

And by my estimation it looks like you're Lawful Good.  You should look into rolling up a Paladin...or at least creating a GURPS equivalent.



KROMM  posted the GURPS equivalent on the SJG forums one time. He's got an account on here too - but he doesn't visit that often.


- Ed C.
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUn-eN8mkDw&feature=rec-fresh+div

This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WnjVUBDbs

Still here, still alive, at least Seven years now...

newguy

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Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2007, 09:54:37 AM »
I would do the same, hang on to it for a week and then donate the money. If more people made the kind of effort you   did with the 20 the world would be a way better place to live in. Too many people have a me first attitude these days.

I alignment terms I think a LG character would turn the money in to the lost and found or police department while a NG character would hang on to the money for a while and then donate it if no one came by to claim it.

Neutral Good all the way baby!
 

jeff37923

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« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2007, 10:03:02 AM »
Quote from: Koltar
What would you guys do in a similar situation?

- Ed C.


Sorry, practicality wins in this situation for me. I'd keep the $20.
"Meh."

Pseudoephedrine
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« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2007, 03:59:17 PM »
When I get drunk with my pals, and we play "stat yourself", I end up "Chaotic Neutral".

I was, about 6 mo. ago, in a similar situation. I was working in a store by myself when I noticed a wallet near a hammock we had on display. The wallet had $100 in it and nothing else - no ID, no notes, no scraps of paper, nothing. I held onto the wallet for the rest of the day in case someone came back for it. No one had by the end of the day, so I kept the money and threw out the wallet (which was a cheap, ugly camouflage pattern). Having been trained as an ethicist in university, I still think this was the right thing to do.

I think you probably qualify as "Lawful Good". I also think that it's silly to get in that much of a tizzy over $20. It is an inappropriate effort for the possible good that could be attained as a result of that effort.
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Koltar

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« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2007, 04:55:52 PM »
Quote from: Pseudoephedrine

I think you probably qualify as "Lawful Good". I also think that it's silly to get in that much of a tizzy over $20. It is an inappropriate effort for the possible good that could be attained as a result of that effort.


Not a toizzy - I'm just generally a nice guy or try to be one.

 Hypotherically the 20 mioght have been dropped ny a tee nager or someone in their early '20s .  To come in that age range twenty bucks could be a big deal.

I was that age once, I remember things like that.

- Ed C.
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUn-eN8mkDw&feature=rec-fresh+div

This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WnjVUBDbs

Still here, still alive, at least Seven years now...

droog

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« Reply #9 on: December 27, 2007, 05:21:15 PM »
What goes around comes around. Maybe it was your little Chrissie present from the cosmos.

But alignments are silly.
The past lives on in your front room
The poor still weak the rich still rule
History lives in the books at home
The books at home

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Joshua Ford

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« Reply #10 on: December 27, 2007, 07:15:52 PM »
Quote from: Koltar
Not a toizzy - I'm just generally a nice guy or try to be one.

 Hypotherically the 20 mioght have been dropped ny a tee nager or someone in their early '20s .  To come in that age range twenty bucks could be a big deal.

I was that age once, I remember things like that.

- Ed C.


Obviously not important enough to warrant retracing their steps to look for it.

Given that it probably came out with a wallet in a games store they've obviously got enough money to spend on luxuries. Either way, it's a lesson learned by them.

I mean if you really wanted to satisfy your inner paladin you could either:

a) stick a notice by the till and ask enquirers for details of when and where they thought they'd lost it

or

b) use it to tempt Tom Selleck out of retirement and get Magnum P.I. on the case.
 

Tyberious Funk

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« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2007, 07:39:55 PM »
I'd pocket the 20.  Maybe that makes me a bad person, but personally I think it is just a matter of practicality.  There is no way you'll ever find the original owner.  In fact, there is a pretty good chance they don't even know they are missing the money.

A few years ago I had something similar happen to me.  I found a 20 while waiting at the checkouts at my local grocery store.  The thing is, I'm pretty sure it belonged to the old pensioner who was in line before me.  Unfortunately by the time I noticed the money on the floor, she was long gone.  I tried to hand it over to a staff member, but they didn't want to get involved.  I felt pretty bad about the whole thing - afterall, 20 bucks isn't a lot to me, but it might be quite a lot to an old pensioner.  But what can you do?
 

Kyle Aaron

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Ethical /moral dilemma , My alignment?
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2007, 07:56:59 PM »
Pocket it, and if someone comes in asking after it and you believe it's them, pay them back.

I tend to find wallets, about one every six months. The first one in recent years was on a train on the way to work. There was about $700 in there, and I was a bit short of cash at the time. Well, I thought to myself, let's see what sort of person has seven hundred bucks in their wallet. I looked through, and it was a university student. Bugger, I said to myself, if it were an acccountant or a lawyer, I could take the cash without guilt. But it's probably her bond on a new flat, or her month's pay from waitressing or something. So I went to work and called the cops.
"We can't come to pick it up, we're too busy, can't you come in?"
"No, I'm working a double shift at work today, the other chef is off sick. So I couldn't come in until this evening. She'd get her cash back of course, but would probably have cancelled all her cards by then."
"Hmmm."
"Well surely you guys come in here regularly anyway? It's a shopping mall, you must come here to pick up shoplifters and stuid kids lurking about ten times a day."
They seemed unamused by this comment.

They came along and I handed it over. That afternoon we got a call from the cops, the woman wanted to contact us. Well that was fine by us. She wanted to reward us, my woman suggested she take us out for some drinks. We went, and met her and her fiancee - it had indeed been the bond on the flat they were moving to together, and all her savings. There had also been in her wallet a piece of paper with a number on it - at first I thought it was a phone number, but it was too long. It turned out this was the number for her mother's credit card, which she also had in her wallet. So if someone else had scored it they could have really gone sick with it.

On another occasion I was walking down the street from having lunch with someone, and passed some public housing units. There in the gutter was a wallet. It had $150 in it and about half a dozen Medicare cards in different names, all vaguely Arabic or possibly Somali. Probably someone scamming Centrelink and drawing several different benefits - but how would I know? Again, I was a bit short of cash at the time, but if the guy was living in public housing and was Arab in racist Australia he was having a harder time than me, that's for sure. I dropped it off at the cop shop, a few hours later I got a call from the cops.
"We have the owner here, he says there was more cash in the wallet before he dropped it."
"What the fuck? If I were going to take the cash, I wouldn't have left $150 behind and then dropped it into the police, would I?"
"Yes I know but he's standing here screaming and I had to ask."
"Tell him to go fuck himself and I hope next time he loses his car keys and it gets swiped, too."
The cop laughed and hung up.

There have been another four or five wallets and purses, I always look to see who owns it. Unfortunately it's never anyone I'll feel no guilt in taking stuff from, it's always some student or pensioner. Why aren't bank managers and used car salesmen more forgetful and careless? Bastards.
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David Johansen

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« Reply #13 on: December 28, 2007, 09:00:34 PM »
My alignment is Arrogant Pragmatist Visionary.
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droog

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« Reply #14 on: December 28, 2007, 09:32:35 PM »
Quote from: David Johansen
My alignment is Arrogant Pragmatist Visionary.

I like that in a man!
The past lives on in your front room
The poor still weak the rich still rule
History lives in the books at home
The books at home

Gang of Four
[/size]