In the shade of a little silver tree...

so, there was this issue on a local Florida jock-radio show the other night, and I kinda keep thinking about it:
A dude on myspace emailed the DJs of the show. Said he found some other dude's wallet, with $380 in it.
He thought about keeping it, but he just... couldn't bring himself to do it, and just talked himself into giving the wallet back. (He found the owner through a dentist's appointment card in the wallet).
So he returns the wallet to the rightful owner, and the owner thanks him and gives him $20 before he leaves. He gave the $20 sort of almost...grudgingly, the guy said (whether this is true or just the guy's perception, I don't know). Then he left real quick, sort of awkwardly.

The finder-dude then emails the DJs with this story and said, "am I wrong to feel bothered that the guy didn't give me a larger reward? I kinda would have expected him to give me about half the cash in the wallet, just for returning it all in one peice. Is this wrong of me to feel this way?"

The two DJ's couldn't agree on the point, so they put the question to the audience- should the finder of a wallet give it back without expectation of reward, or should you give the person money as "incentive to encourage good behavior" (this was the rationale most of the pro-money people were giving, that if you give a "reward" it makes someone feel good and encourages them to be good more in the future)?

Surprisingly to me, many people were calling in with the opinion that the wallet-finder deserves a reward, of at least half the cash in the wallet, one guy even went so far as to have the audacity to suggest that it is a "finder's fee" and he felt he would have the right to demand money from the owner for returning the wallet with everything else still in it.
I think that is absurd- you don't have the "right" to another person's money- if it's not yours, taking it is called "stealing". If you're going to be altruistic and return the wallet with the money still inside (because, you could obviously take all the money, THEN call the owner and tell them, "gosh, I just found it like this on the sidewalk" and they would probably not know it was you that took the money to begin with), then why be half-assed about your altruism and demand a percentage as a "finder's fee"?
You don't know what that person's situation is- maybe they can't really afford to give you a reward, even though they are grateful- but that shouldn't color your decision to give the wallet back or not... if you know it's the right thing to do, you DO it, and if you don't, then don't bother if your conscience doesn't lead you to be a goody-two-shoes.


Maybe that money was earmarked for something important. Maybe they are trying to buy groceries and diapers for the week. Maybe the dude just got paid and needed to pay his bills- maybe if they don't have enough money to pay their bills, they are going to end up paying the amount of the "reward" they give you twice over in late fees to their creditors, and would you really want to put someone further in debt over a stupid "reward" for something that was going to bring you positive karma anyway?

You could say, yeah, well, they couldn't really afford to lose ALL their money, either, but I brought some of it back at least... but that's a bogus argument, because that doesn't mean they need all that money back any less than before you found it- and it wasn't yours before you found it, and it's not yours just because you found it. There is no, "oh, they should be happy they got anything back at all". Either give it back freely, or don't give it back if you're too greedy. Just own your decision, is all I'm saying, y'know? Don't give it back and then be pissed because they didn't give a lot of it back to you...

I don't know. I mean, I was brought up to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Not because you hoped to get something out of it. If the owner wants to give you a reward for finding and returning their wallet, that is good and nice and happy, and I think it's probably okay to accept it if they offer one.... but you shouldn't expect it, and stand there with your hand out, because the point of giving it back is that it's considered "the right thing to do" in our society, and wouldn't you want someone to return YOUR wallet if they found it? *With* all the money still inside?
But apparently, I'm in the minority on this issue, at least, to the local way of thinking...

What do you guys think? (all comments are screened unless otherwise requested, because I'm really curious to know what people feel about this...)