To be very shocked at attitude towards finding money

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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, 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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

Our moral compasses are not aligned.

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 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.

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

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

No.

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

The offence of theft by finding has been discussed upthread.

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?

Last week in a supermarket atm my husband realised the man who was before him in the queue had walked away without picking up a stack of £20 notes. My husband dashed after him and handed him his money.
35 years ago on a bus in Italy we found a wallet stuffed full of notes. Clearly had dropped from a pocket. We were pretty broke but didn’t hesitate and gave it to the driver.
People we told later thought we were mad, the driver woukd keep the money, but we said then let that be on his conscience, it was not on ours. I hope the owner was reunited with his wallet.

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?

That’s called upcycling and many people do this as a hobby and even to make a living. They were clearly worth more after the trouble you went to, making them clean and pretty again. And very thoughtful to share the money with the charity shop. Well done.