What would you do with $1000?

I do not like to boast about doing the right thing/ a good deed, but I am beating myself up about something. Today while working at the card room I work at, I found a $1,000 chip from a card room in San Jose, CA under a table near a seat from a player I was selling chips to. For about 30 seconds I thought about all the things $1,000 could do for me; pay off debt, go on that nice vacation, go towards getting an apartment so my spouse and I could finally live together (whenever he gets a job, but thats another story). In the end I decided that if I gave the money back to the player I would be condemned to being broke longer, but if I kept it my conscious would drive me mad, (like the tell tale heart). I thought about the saying, finders keepers, but I decided to give it back. To do this I first asked the player that was closest if he ever played at that particular card room, he said yes. Then I asked if he had any chips in his pocket from that place, and he said yes a $1,000 one. It was his so I gave it back. My reward for giving it back? A lousy $10. 1% of the amount. In all reality, I should not be rewarded for returning someone's lost money, but at the same time I keep thinking about all the things a grand could do for me (and I am a 25 year old guy who would qualify as being below the poverty line and I do have a B.A but cannot find a living wage paying job, but I am lucky enough to be able to stay with my parents & in laws so the peanuts I make working just covers my basic living expenses minus any rent )

Now for this poll, put your self in my position; you make $10 an hour, and get $20 a day in tips (on a good day). Did I turn away a gift from the gods, or was I being tested by them to see how pure my soul is? (and I am not a religious person, I only mean "gods" in poetic sense).

If, as you explained in your post, you were sure of the owner's identity, then returning it was the correct move. Besides, you got off cheap to retain a clear conscience! Well done - Karma should pay dividends in the future.

I agree with your actions; a clear conscious is worth more than a grand.

A 25 year old Friend of Dorothy is going to be losing his own. $1000 chips under a poker table in five years. It gets better! And sooner that you think.

I'd be awfully tempted to keep it, too.

BTW next time you may want to casually bring up the fact that a finder's fee is 15%.

It's not just the "clear conscience"; by keeping it, you run the risk, however small, that the person who lost it will come looking for it and, in the end, you will be accused of having stolen it (even if "stealing" just means that you found it and didn't do everything in your power to look for the person who lost it). You never know when a picture of you pocketing the chip might turn up on a "random" camera.

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Considering that you would be committing a crime by keeping it, yeah, giving it back was the right thing to do. People go to jail for pocketing $5 chips they find on the floor in casinos, as well as taking paper slot receipts that aren't theirs. Keeping a 1K chip might be a felony where you live, and you have no idea if a camera saw you pick it up. Keeping it was never an option.

Quote: Nareed

I'd be awfully tempted to keep it, too.

BTW next time you may want to casually bring up the fact that a finder's fee is 15%.

That would probably be the last tip you ever got from that patron.

it's not even a consideration for me... if I know whose the property is, it's getting returned, and I don't expect anything for doing the right thing. If I don't know, I take it to the pit boss or security and hand it in.

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