To be very shocked at attitude towards finding money

Not you're not. It's definitely dishonest. Some attempt ought to be made to find out where it came from, even if that's not easy. If that can't be achieved then at least a good proportion should be given to the charity.

No you are not - however I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me.

Some of them are coming up with all kinds of scenarios to justify keeping it one popular one being that the blanket probably belonged to a deceased person whose heartless relatives didn't even value her enough to keep her precious quilt so they don't deserve the money.

We are currently clearing out my late mother's home and having to give away lots of lovely things. Not because we didn't live our mother but because if we kept everything we'd have nowhere to keep it in our much smaller houses.

It's quite a sickening thread really.

Doesn't shock me at all. There have always been people who are utterly dishonest without having a thread of justification.

The newspapers are full of stories of trials of people who have taken other peoples money by some scamor another and most of us have been shocked at some time by the dishonesty, possibly only petty, of a friend.

I wonder if the quilt was in a charity shop because nobody in the family clearing a deceased person’s home wanted to keep it?

They’d be kicking themselves if they knew.

Well the finder has now decided to lodge it to her bank acc and is hoping she won't be asked any awkward questions.

Disgraceful. But why am I not surprised? I hope she will develop a conscience and be haunted by her dishonesty.

I feel sad for the person that sewed the money into the quilt. My imagination is working overtime trying to think of circumstances that would make someone do that. They must have felt financially insecure.

It must have been done very well if nobody noticed an odd feel about the quilt with all that paper in it, presuming it was notes and not coins (coins are heavy) that were sewn in. Does the original article mention what form the money was in?

Having said that it strikes me that the person who bought the quilt at the charity shop probably had some knowledge about quilts, though not necessarily, but had an appreciation of the work that goes into quilt-making, and did notice a certain stiffness (or something) and so investigated.

There are a lot of people on that thread saying hand the money in, give it to charity or try to find the owner. There are lots of good people out there too.

I bought a bag of dolls in a charity shop for £5. After spending a morning cleaning them up and laundering their little dresses I sold them on ebay for over £100. I gave half the money to the charity shop and kept the other half. Did I do the right thing? What would you have done?

PS Could you PM me a link to the mumsnet thread, please, beswitched?

It was a mix of new and old notes. The poster noticed when she got home that one part of the quilt was bulkier than the rest.

Coastpath

There are a lot of people on that thread saying hand the money in, give it to charity or try to find the owner. There are lots of good people out there too.

I bought a bag of dolls in a charity shop for £5. After spending a morning cleaning them up and laundering their little dresses I sold them on ebay for over £100. I gave half the money to the charity shop and kept the other half. Did I do the right thing? What would you have done?

Sounds fine to me, coastpath. After all, you bought the dolls in good faith and so they belonged to you. I don't think you were under any obligation to donate some of your profit back to the charity.

Does the original article mention what form the money was in?

Apparently it was over £1,000 in £50 notes in one corner of the quilt.

Beswitched

It was a mix of new and old notes. The poster noticed when she got home that one part of the quilt was bulkier than the rest.

I see. Thanks.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4490528-Found-money-what-should-I-do?msgid=115392574

Thanks Baggs. I felt like I'd done the right thing but this thread made me wonder.

Baggs

PS Could you PM me a link to the mumsnet thread, please, beswitched?

I've pm'd you.

Coastpath

*Does the original article mention what form the money was in?*

Apparently it was over £1,000 in £50 notes in one corner of the quilt.

It sounds like it was a lot more than that as she said, twice, that she didn't want to specify how many thousand

Coastpath

*Does the original article mention what form the money was in?*

Apparently it was over £1,000 in £50 notes in one corner of the quilt.

Thanks, cp, too. In which case the charity shop apparently hadn't really paid the item much attention. If it was bought in good faith, I think the buyer was just lucky and doesn't owe anyone anything. Surely we've all bought really good bargains from charity shops? Maybe not to that extent but still jolly good bargains.

Beswitched

Coastpath

Does the original article mention what form the money was in?

Apparently it was over £1,000 in £50 notes in one corner of the quilt.

It sounds like it was a lot more than that as she said, twice, that she didn't want to specify how many thousand

Ah. Now I'm beginning to understand the outrage. It's the scale of the bargain that people object to.

I have to disagree Baggs. I think the moral thing to do is contact the charity shop or the police and make some attempt to find the rightful owner. If they can't then the money belongs to the poster.

A woman I worked with use to scour charity shops for sketches and old water colours knowing that most people would not know an original or its value. She would then sell them at auction or to antique shops. She made a lot of money out of this but felt no guilt, she would even bait down the price in a charity shop.

I’m surprised at you * Baggs*. I’ve seen people on the Antiques Roadshow with valuable items that they bought for next to nothing in a charity shop, smirking about how clever they are. I couldn’t do other than donate the money to the charity.

What you did was absolutely right Coastpath. A decent and honest person.

I found the thread on MN. I agree with this comment: "Funnily enough there is a law about this. If you genuinely believe (and the belief has to be genuin) that the owner could not be found by reasonable means then you can legitimately keep the money. If you believe that the owner can be found be reasonable means but do not try to do so, you commit theft by finding."

Could be complicated if the quilt was donated from an anonymous house clearance though. Nothing's simple.

I would have kept quiet about the money in the quilt and told no one. Certainly not a bunch of randoms on the internet.

I once bought an item on Ebay for 15 euro because I had the expert knowledge to know what it was. I subsequently sold it at auction for £1400. I dont feel any guilt at this.

People higher up the antiques food chain buy my items and sell them at 3-4 X the price in their high end antiques shops in London or New York. Im sure they dont feel any guilt either.

Its just business.

Knowledge is power.