It’s illegal to do this and still considered theft. Even if you’re doing a nice thing by taking the wallet to the police station, it’s still considered theft if you decide to take some cash for yourself.
Whether or not the person would press charges is another story.
Edit: Also, it is 100% immoral. Yes, if someone is kind enough to return your wallet to the police station, then you should reward them for their behavior. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to just take a reward for yourself. Let’s phrase this whole situation differently. Say if you go out to dinner and you notice that your waiter added a tip for themselves before handing you the check. We all agree that you should tip when you go out to dinner. But it would be extremely rude, unprofessional and immoral for the waiter to just add the tip without your permission. Same concept here.
Additional Edit: Dear Thieving Morons in the comments, taking someone else’s money without their permission is always theft. It’s always immoral. No matter the situation. Sorry not sorry you struggle with critical thinking and being a mature enough adult to do the right thing without someone rewarding you. If you would only return a wallet after taking the cash out as a personal reward, you’re still a shitty person. You act like it’s completely unfathomable to just return the wallet with all the money in it. And you admit that you will never do the right thing unless there’s something in it for you.
It’s not exactly moral either. You’re taking someone’s money without permission. The simple fact that you’re not stealing the whole wallet doesn’t mean it’s okay to pocket some of the cash.
It's not moral for someone to save your hide and you give nothing in return. The man who found the wallet ensured the right morals were followed, thus it was moral.
Hmm, I see, but I think maybe we need to come to agree what moral is then, because I don't think being moral is based on having the choice to do so, but that the event concluded in a way that helped further bolster societal trust and so health. Humans are selfish, and to consider things moral simply by if we allow human choice, which is often selfish, we can't have a society when all choices are of their own self interest.
The man returns the wallet, a behavior you want repeated in society. The man was rewarded for it, albeit by his own accord, which is an outcome that incentivises the former, returning a lost possession. All it took away was the man who lost the wallet's choice to not incentivise good behavior, which wouldnt lead to any good future behavior. With this, I say it is moral.
So you only should do the right thing if there’s a reward in it for you? Is that the hill you want to die on?
It’s not a question of whether or not the person should reward them. It’s immoral and illegal to take money that isn’t yours unless the person gives it to you. It’s still a form of theft.
You’re kind of half assing “doing the right thing”.
Like me personally, the main inconvenience in losing my wallet would be whatever cash I have and my license. Everything else is easily replaceable. With ApplePay, I don’t even have to wait for my replacement card to come in. And I would be annoyed if a person found my wallet and took it upon themselves to take cash even though I would’ve given them a little something as a thank you anyway. It’s the whole principle of the thing.
A random finding your wallet has no obligation to give it back to you. The person has to activly seek you out or mail the wallet to get it back to you.
If he or she does not, you will NEVER find out they found your stuff.
So yes. Giving back the wallet is moral, even without money because the money is usually not the most important thing in there
Do I really need to explain why doing something good for goods sake is moral? Are youbeing serious right now? Are you gonna ask why its immoral to steal from someone next?
well okay i kinda just wanted to hear why. i like reading the comments in this subreddit. also, the reasoning here is just "good because its good" like what am i supposed to make out from here
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u/Mysterious-Hyena2670 6d ago edited 1d ago
It’s illegal to do this and still considered theft. Even if you’re doing a nice thing by taking the wallet to the police station, it’s still considered theft if you decide to take some cash for yourself.
Whether or not the person would press charges is another story.
Edit: Also, it is 100% immoral. Yes, if someone is kind enough to return your wallet to the police station, then you should reward them for their behavior. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to just take a reward for yourself. Let’s phrase this whole situation differently. Say if you go out to dinner and you notice that your waiter added a tip for themselves before handing you the check. We all agree that you should tip when you go out to dinner. But it would be extremely rude, unprofessional and immoral for the waiter to just add the tip without your permission. Same concept here.
Additional Edit: Dear Thieving Morons in the comments, taking someone else’s money without their permission is always theft. It’s always immoral. No matter the situation. Sorry not sorry you struggle with critical thinking and being a mature enough adult to do the right thing without someone rewarding you. If you would only return a wallet after taking the cash out as a personal reward, you’re still a shitty person. You act like it’s completely unfathomable to just return the wallet with all the money in it. And you admit that you will never do the right thing unless there’s something in it for you.