I found a wallet with $1,500 cash and my wife is mad I gave it back.
By @quinnkindof · Money
It was some college kid's rent money. I didn't even think twice about it, you just return something like that. She thinks I should've thought about our own finances before being a hero.
The full story
I work construction, and I was stopping for coffee Friday morning. Saw a wallet on the ground by my truck. Looked inside to find an ID, and a huge stack of cash. Counted it when I got in the truck, it was fifteen hundred bucks. All hundreds. For a second my eyes got big, not gonna lie. That's a car payment, that's groceries for months, that's a new set of tires. Then I saw the ID. Kid couldn't have been more than 20. Had a university card in there too. I just knew what it was. I drove home before heading to the site and showed my wife. Her first reaction was "Are you kidding me?" She wasn't happy. they said this is the kind of luck we never get, and that we have bills piling up and I'm just going to give it away. I told her it wasn't ours to keep. It felt wrong. I looked the kid up online, found his profile, and sent a message. An hour later he calls me, totally frantic. Said it was his half of the rent for the next few months that he'd saved up from his summer job. He met me on my lunch break and was almost in tears he was so grateful. Offered me a hundred bucks but I told him to just keep it, just be more careful. Felt good doing it. Really did. But when I got home my wife was still quiet. She made a comment about how we'll be eating pasta for the rest of the month but it's nice that student can pay his rent. I know I did the right thing, but I can't shake the feeling that she's right in a way. I didn't even stop to consider my own family. Was I supposed to?
How people voted
- On their side — 33% (83 votes)
- Both sides — 42% (106 votes)
- Other side — 25% (62 votes)
Readers are split: “Both sides” leads with 42% — 251 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@kim — My wife and I once argued for a week straight because I gave a homeless guy $20.
@kara — The next time she buys literally anything that isn't essential I'd say 'oh I thought we were only eating pasta this month?'
@owenlol — you fumbled 1500 dollars your wife has a point
@vinceliterally — Your wife's scarcity mindset is clashing with your integrity and that's the real issue here.
@ashish — A man's character is defined by what he does when no one is looking.
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