If You Found $500,000 on the Road, Would You Return It?

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There are times I imagine myself walking down the road and I should just see a suitcase filled with lot of money in dollars sitting pretty in a corner abandoned due to soneone's carelessness, one part of me might tell me to just leave the suitcase and go my way while another part of me will want me to keep the suitcase for the real owner. First of all, with the state of the country or should I saw how things are currently, almost everyone is praying to see free money on the road somewhere, just like how it was back in the days as a kid, anytime we were sent on errand, we do see money on the floor and we were told not to pick any money we saw on the floor that we might turn to yam or goat in case the money is for ritual purpose but as the wise kid that we were, we would first of all urinate on the money with the intention of spoiling any charm attached to the money, then use the money to buy something immediately.

I can't count the amount of money I have picked and the amount I have lost due to my carelessness but in this case, after taking the suitcase full of money, you saw an announcement on TV that a rich politician lost that particular suitcase and it contain $500,000 what will I do? Well I will do nothing as a citizen, the money is gone because I will switch off the tv immediately so that I won't hear the full announcement. What will first come to my mind is how this opportunity must not pass me by, how the money will change my life, how much is the country's minimum wage and how they make us suffer. Most politicians in my country are corrupt, most steal millions of the public funds for their own benefit and for their families, so this is my share of the national cake because even though I decided to return the money, the politicians will still get double of it from their looting source.

The main thing here is my guilty conscience, I won't have that peace of mind at first because many things will be going through my mind, what if I return the money and I receive nothing in return, most times, people who return lost funds will be praise or called heroes for a short while with little or no compensation and society will criticize this good samaritan at the end of the day. What is your gain of being a samaritan, you are living in poverty but you missed a good opportunity which can change your life for good just because you want to be good. There are different cases I have heard, a keke rider found about four million in his keke and returned it to the owner and all he received as reward was a hug and praises but people criticized him at the end of the day, same thing with an airport cleaner. My final answer is, I will keep the money, invest it in a safe and low risk investment which will give me returns with time then at some time, I'd start sharing the national cake for others.