To be very shocked at attitude towards finding money

I too was brought up to believe that if you found money or other valuables you should hand it in to the police who would try to trace the owner.

This may have worked when we were children, if the person who had lost the money reported the loss to the police. But I doubt it works today.

Buying something in a charity shop and discovering that money has been stashed in the item poses a couple of problems.

It is a reasonable assumption that the person who made that quilt is now dead and in no further need of the money. (She could, of course, be in a care home, and need the money.)

The charity shop is unlikely to know where that quilt came from - someone came in with boxes and bags of stuff and handed them over.

Morally the charity is no more entitled to the money than the person who found it is. The person who cleared a house after someone died may well not be a relation but acting on behalf of a housing society or the executor of the will.

Taking all this into consideration, it is going to be very hard to find anyone with a legal or moral claim to the money.

This doesn't make keeping the money on the old (wrong) principle of "Finders -keepers" right, but it tells me that we need a moral philosopher to solve the dilemma.

Being a historian of comparative religion it is not my field of expertise, so any moral philosophers on gransnet, or failing that legal experts?

The offence of theft by finding has been discussed upthread.

If the money is hidden inside something which is legally yours, does that make a difference?

No.

Good question MissAdventure, but now define legally yours. Something you’ve paid for? Something you’ve purchased in good faith?

Both.
Something you have paid for, lock, stock and barrel, in good faith.

But you find something inside it which wasn’t intended to be included in the sale by either party. Ownership of the found item was not intended to be transferred to you.

Let's say the money had been hidden in my mums quilt, which I then donated to charity...

I wouldn't dream of wanting the money back, as much as I could do with it.

I would just think that the buyer struck lucky, the charity had lost nothing, and neither had I, really, because the money was hidden from me so was never mine to lay claim to.

Our moral compasses are not aligned.

I was speaking from a detached point of view.
That situation is never going to happen to me, I'd imagine.
Nothing whatsoever to do with my or your morals.

It could be considered immoral to pop up and claim money which someone had hidden away from you.

MissAdventure

Let's say the money had been hidden in my mums quilt, which I then donated to charity...

I wouldn't dream of wanting the money back, as much as I could do with it.

I would just think that the buyer struck lucky, the charity had lost nothing, and neither had I, really, because the money was hidden from me so was never mine to lay claim to.

But do you really think your mother would have wanted that money to go to some random stranger rather than her children or grandchildren?

grandtanteJE65

I too was brought up to believe that if you found money or other valuables you should hand it in to the police who would try to trace the owner.

This may have worked when we were children, if the person who had lost the money reported the loss to the police. But I doubt it works today.

Buying something in a charity shop and discovering that money has been stashed in the item poses a couple of problems.

It is a reasonable assumption that the person who made that quilt is now dead and in no further need of the money. (She could, of course, be in a care home, and need the money.)

The charity shop is unlikely to know where that quilt came from - someone came in with boxes and bags of stuff and handed them over.

Morally the charity is no more entitled to the money than the person who found it is. The person who cleared a house after someone died may well not be a relation but acting on behalf of a housing society or the executor of the will.

Taking all this into consideration, it is going to be very hard to find anyone with a legal or moral claim to the money.

This doesn't make keeping the money on the old (wrong) principle of "Finders -keepers" right, but it tells me that we need a moral philosopher to solve the dilemma.

Being a historian of comparative religion it is not my field of expertise, so any moral philosophers on gransnet, or failing that legal experts?

It has been explained many times how it might be possible to track down the donator. Are you saying this shouldn't even be tried before pocketing the money?

MissAdventure

It could be considered immoral to pop up and claim money which someone had hidden away from you.

My mother left her jewellery to my sister and me. She hid it safely from burglars but, because she died without huge warning, never told us where it was. It was pure chance that I found it before giving her clothes to charity. She had desperately, when she realised she might not make it, tried to give us cash so we could avoid death tax (which we, misunderstanding, had refused saying no, no that's your money). There was certainly no question of her hiding the jewellery from us.
Your post is actually quite upsetting.

Well, obviously I wasn't referring to your individual circumstances.
How could I be, since I didn't know them?

Unfortunately we can't chat on here sometimes in case it upsets someone.

You seemed to be implying that the fact that the money was sewn into the quilt meant the person was trying to hide the money from her next of kin. Apologies if I took you up wrongly.

Well, I have known a case of that happening, actually, when one of my neighbours started a decline mentally.
She spent all night up, moving her money from place to place, because she didn't want her daughter to have it.
She posted it all through my letterbox one night.

Then a few months later it was a pile of wet teabags.

Anyway, regardless of that, I can only apologise if I offended you.
It was never and would never be my intention.

I mentioned this case recently to an elderly neighbour, very switched on, a former professional with a highly respected org., who has now worked on a voluntary basis for some years at the local large police station.

There they do still take in ‘found’ items, but keep them only for a month, after which they are disposed of via charity shop/offered to the finder.

But she did say unhesitatingly that if you have bought and paid for something in good faith, and it turns out (for whatever reason) to be worth a lot more, you are fully entitled to keep it.
So that’s the legal side,
The moral side, in this case, may be different.

With the greatest of respect to the lady who works at the police station, something turning out to be worth a lot more than you paid for it and something containing, unknown to all, a stash of money are two totally different scenarios. I’m sure you all know my former profession only too well without my ramming it down your long suffering throats again!

If I knew without a doubt, it had belonged to one of those new billionaires, the ones that have got rich through the pharmaceutical companies for the vaccines, or any billionaire to be honest....I would pray about it. I wouldn’t rush to give it back. I know people who could do with that money.

Otherwise...I would try everything to reunite it with its owner.