As with most people, there are times when I do wonder what would happen if I did that instead of this? If I chose to go this way or that way? Should I be an idiot or shouldn't I be an idiot. What would happen if I did things differently? A lot of people think about this everyday of their lives.
Last week I was out. Drowning my sorrows. Wondering why I don't have a job AGAIN. Why have I lost 3 jobs this year? Why is it that I always seem to be stuck in a rut? Why I am now feeling like I'm running out of motivation, any positivity that I might still have left in me and constantly wondering what it is I actually want? Sometimes I don't even know. Wondering why a rock bar was playing dance music and why everyone was dancing to it.
So I see this handbag on a table. Unattended. I don't know much about ladies handbags- I don't know much about ladies- but this handbag seemed quite large. It was outside, I had just gone to get some fresh air. There was nobody around the handbag. I waited in the cold for about 15 minutes. Nobody came. So I walk up to this huge expensive looking handbag. Look around again. Nobody. What else could I do but pick it up?
Out of simple curiosity I looked inside. Money. About £100. Maybe more, maybe less. I just glanced inside. I didn't see any kind of identification or anything. So what should I do now? Bearing in mind I had no money, no job, no anything.
An honest person would hand it in. After all it wasn't my money. How would I like it if someone stole my money? Which someone had done so in the past. It obviously isn't a good feeling losing money. The right thing to do would be to hand it in. Even though I don't believe in karma anymore:-
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/karma-or-just-load-of-crap.html
When did doing the right thing get anyone anywhere?
A person who would claim to be kind of honest but would say things like "charity begins at home" would take the money and then hand in the bag. After all if someone else had found the bag, surely they would do that exact thing? So at least the person would have their bag back with anything in it that they might need or be important to them. The money would be gone but surely that is better than everything going? Yes, that would be what most people would surely do? Take the money and then hand the bag in. A benefit for yourself and also the person who had lost their bag.
Now what would a completely dishonest person do? What would an idiot do? But would it be being an idiot or would it actually be being sensible? Take the money, dispose of the handbag and have no qualms about it whatsoever. £100 is a lot of money. What do I need? New jeans? A new phone? How much are phones these days? £100 could go towards a new phone but I probably would have to find a few more handbags to get a brand new decent quality phone the prices they go for now. Or I could just put it all in the bank-I could use it over the next couple of weeks or so. I had no job for crying out loud. Surely it was time for me to be selfish now?
So what did I end up doing then?
In all honestly, I ended up being the idiot. No I didn't take the money and dispose of the bag nor did I take any money at all. I handed it in. All of it. Contents and all. Yes my beautiful readers THAT is being an idiot. The strange thing was that I didn't feel righteous. I didn't feel like I had done a good deed. Even though of course it WAS a good deed. My first thought was a couple of years ago about someone I know who isn't a thief but who for some reason stole a camera out of a girls' bag just to see if he could. Sick I know. He wasn't found out or caught and didn't even need a camera. That person has an amazing job and an amazing life.
I told 10 people about finding the bag and what I did. 9 of them said they would have taken the money but that I "did the right thing". The other person simply said "good boy" which just made me feel like I was supposed to get a pat on the head and a bone.
There was no pat on the head or a even a bone.
