The last time I found usable money in the streets of any city in Venezuela was 2009.
This is my entry to @galenkp’s Weekend Engagement #94
I picked topic
2️⃣ Found $250
You find $250 in cash on the sidewalk. There's no one close by to claim it, so you bend over and pick it up. What do you do next? Hand it to the authorities or pocket it? If you decide to keep it what do you do with the money, how do you spend it, and why? If you decide to hand it in to the authorities what's behind that decision?
The last time I found usable money (I’ll come back to this in a sec) in the streets of any city in Venezuela was in 2009. I was leaving the apartment complex where I lived back then; it was about 1 PM, not a soul in that street I used to walk at the same time every weekday. I looked down and there it was a 50Bs bill (some $8 back then). I picked it up, looked around, and pocketed it.
It was not much, so I did not feel guilty. I was going to work, so it did not make any sense to wait there for the owner to show up, let alone to ask around.
I said usable money above because after 2009, after all the monetary reconversions we have tons of bills in the streets, some of them nominally marked in the hundreds of thousands, but with an insignificant real value.
If I found $250 dollars in the street, I would pocket it. No questions asked, no guilt. It would be a handsome sum which would help with some of the pending medical issues we have been postponing (teeth, lab tests, specialist consultations).
I know I would be tempted to wait for a while for someone with a desperate look in their face searching around. If that person looked honest and kind, I’ll probably return the money. On the other hand, if the owner looked dangerous worse, I’d probably keep it just assuming I would make better use of it. However, that would cause me a moral conflict.
To avoid that moral conflict, I’d rather not know who the rightful owner was. If the money is in the street and I don’t pick it up, someone else will anyways.
Why not hand it to the authorities?
Here in Venezuela it is really hard (if not impossible) to find honesty in any uniform or government office. You find money and hand it to some police officer in the streets hoping that they will find the owner and you can be your life that they will keep the money for themselves.
The idea of using the money for some charitable cause is also tempting, but when you are deep in debt and need, it becomes you Vs. them. The priority would be to try to solve as many of your own problems as possible.
That being said, in our culture people also believe that you should thank the universe for what you receive, so using some of the money to make someone else’s day, start some sort of pay-it-forward, is a perfectly valid option.
Thanks for your reading
I agree with you, here in Venezuela the law is the law of the living, the best thing to do is to take the money and use it for our own needs. The authorities present dubious morals and a lot of dishonesty and that is all over the country. Greetings
Saludos, @nbarrios67
The worse thing is that in the last years, after the destruction of most public, autonomous universities, the number one pick for kids who just finished High School is to become part of this corruption network in uniforms.
They are deciding to become military not so much because they ran out of options but because this option looks very lucrative given the ubiquitous corruption and impunity.
At that hour no one would wait for the owner, I like your reasons are quite valid for me, seeing from your point of view if I had things to solve health wise and without having any income that would allow me to solve them I would take them.
Years ago I had a similar situation and I used some money for lunch, that day I had nothing to eat.
Today I would act differently.
Greetings my friend, happy weekend @hlezama
Comparto absolutamente tu punto de vista, aquí son contados los uniformes honestos.. un fuerte abrazo desde Anzoátegui ..
Gracias. Saludos
n my case I will not take money, I will give it to someone who needs it most. Good night 🌄
Good for you. It feels good to give to others