How much of an effort, if any, would you go to to return found money or a wallet?
Several weeks ago, I wrote a column about researchers who deliberately “lost” thousands of wallets around the world to determine how many people would try to return them. Most people it turns out tried to return the wallets, although the return rate in Switzerland (76%) topped all other countries. The researchers also found that the more money a wallet contained, the more likely a finder was to try to return it.
I asked readers to share their experiences of when they’ve found wallets or cash. Unsurprisingly, most shared experiences were those who tried valiantly to do the right thing by reconnecting the lost wallet or money with its owner.
One reader, C.C., wrote that on her frequent walks she has found everything from cell phones to wallets, but mostly she finds cash. Because she can’t tell who owns the cash C.C. decided to give it to the owner of the closest house. “I knew it wasn’t mine,” wrote C.C. while acknowledging that it likely didn’t always belong to the owners of those houses either.
When S.S. was at the counter at her bank, she noticed an elderly man signing a check before he went to get on a teller’s line. He’d left his wallet on the counter and she immediately returned the wallet, and also saluted him for his military service as indicated by the cap he was wearing.
L.K. found $250 in cash in the parking lot of her downtown pharmacy, one $50 bill and two $100 bills. After getting over her “initial glee” at the find, she did the right thing and left her name and phone number with the pharmacy’s cashier in the event someone returned looking for their money. No one ever did. After much deliberation L.K. decided to treat her family to a birthday celebration dinner.
A few months ago, J.W. found a wallet in a shopping center parking lot. No money was inside but there was a driver’s license, credit cards and other items. He decided to drive to the address on the license to return the wallet since it wasn’t very far away. The person who answered the door seemed suspicious, wrote J.W.; they took the wallet then abruptly closed the door. “Though not well-received, I felt on cloud nine for that simple deed,” wrote J.W.
Several Christmas Eve’s ago, C.R. found a Christmas card containing $100 on the ground near the door of a restaurant. The card was addressed to a young man from his grandparent, but no last names were included. C.R. left his name and phone number with the restaurant manager and kept the card, “hoping someone would call.” No one ever called to claim the card or money so C.R. gave the cash to a woman he knows who uses her own money to feed hungry people she meets each morning on a street corner at what she calls her “warming station.” All these years later, C.R. wrote that if anyone ever does call about the card, he will have $100 waiting for them.
More readers wrote of their experiences. “I couldn’t help but ask myself how I’d feel if the situation was reversed,” wrote J.W. He and others, in their own way, indicated they’d done their best to do the right thing.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2026 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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