Yesterday after work J. and I went over to Soo, Michigan to pick up some parcels J. had ordered. The bonus of living in a bordertown is you can save the ridiculous charges couriers tack on to ship items across the border. We just get parcels shipped to Michigan and then we drive them over ourselves and just pay the normal duty taxes.
Well we went inside the customs building so J. could show his receipts. As I was standing there behind him I noticed money on the floor. Oh crap I thought – it’s burned into my head that this could be a set up – have you ever seen any of those tv shows where they plant money to see what people will do? What better place for it than where there are lots of cameras!
So I looked away. Then I thought, oh crap, fine, and I went over and picked it up. I unfolded it to find out it was just a $5 bill. I wanted to pocket it, but here we are standing here declaring purchases, damn it, I better look honest. So I reached over J.’s shoulder and told the inspector that I just found five dollars on the floor. There were lots of customs workers standing there and they over heard me. They were all laughing. J. kept saying “I’ll talk to her later about that”. The dude asked it if could have been mine, and I said, well maybe – thinking that was the best chance of getting it back into my pocket. J. said, nope, it wasn’t ours. So the greedy bastards took it. Then I started thinking, sheesh, that felt like I just bribed him as he was assessing the duty owed. I hope he’d hold out for a larger bribe. hehe.
What would you have done? Would you have pocketed it, even with all the cameras and customs officers there? Left it on the floor? Or play it honestly like I did?