AIBU in expecting people to pay?

One of our local shops started a scheme where every day it put out a number of boxes containing fruit and veg that were a bit past their best for a supermarket to sell but still perfectly usable. On it was a sign that said 'Food bank customers are welcome to help themselves, all others please leave a donation.' Soon after I saw a besuited young man pull up in a very flash car, take a few things out of the boxes and leave without paying. Now I may be making assumptions but he didn't look like he might be in need of the food bank. A few weeks later the scheme stopped due to 'misuse'. Such a shame that a few spoil it for those who need it.

Going back to Pammie1 - not only was your neighbour horrible, they were also incorrect. Such small scale sharing of surplus produce & similar is allowed.

Perhaps it is to do with areas, it seems so many people have experienced unbelievable meanness. Which is miserable, I live in North Hampshire and frequently buy plants, eggs, veg and fruit from the honesty boxes around, how about 10 quails eggs for £1.

Pammiel It could be that people did donate but somebody stole what had been left.

What a horrible neighbour.

PAMMIE1 How awful of your neighbor to threaten you over such a small thing. I just don't get it!

Well I m happy to report that everyone who took the flower bulbs I was selling put the money through my letter box
I do believe the vast majority of people are honest just a few that spoil it

Beechnut

I’ve seen ‘eyes’ painted on honesty boxes. Perhaps you could try that ?

Great idea !

Maybe a sign saying 'CCTV recording' would also deter any future thieves.

It might have been a good idea to have put your idea to the residents of the Village BEFORE going to all your trouble - just to give you some idea of how many people would have seriously considered taking part.

We buy our eggs from a farm about 8 miles from here. the eggs are never more than 24 hours old. the chickens are running around the fields and the eggs are on trays in a barn with smaller egg boxes to fill yourself if you don't want to buy a tray of them. there are sometimes random vegetables to buy as well with a price ticket on the cardboard box or whatever they have put them in. There is an honesty box where you sort out your own change if necessary and usually there is a reasonable amount of money in the box. I know the owner and one day I asked her if the box was ever abused. She said almost never. She is lovely and I would be shocked if anyone was callous enough to behave dishonestly towards her.

A shop I worked in years ago had charity boxes at the till and one busy Saturday the two of them were stolen. What a lowlife to steal from people with cancer, disgrace.

Why not write honesty box across your letterbox? Folk may not pay enough but at least it won't get nicked.

No you're not BU, you're trying to do something positive to get people to engage with growing! If they're not prepared to pay such a low price then they shouldn't take the goods. People like this really annoy me, want something for nothing!
I tried something similar at the start of lockdown last year, I proposed to bulk buy veggies and share them amongst the neighbours on my road to save them having to carry shopping. Planned to buy spuds, carrots, onions and workthe price out per half kilo/pound in weight. I didn't want to make any profit at all.
No one was interested because they thought I was giving the veggies away for free!

As CORNISHPASTY said, people aren't carrying cash now as everywhere seems to want contactless payments. Hopefully you still might get some of it.

I'm a very optimistic person who tries to think the best of everyone. But, sadly, the older I get the more I realise that most people are kind and honest, but there are many people who seem not to care about anyone other than themselves and have no conscience. Today in the supermarket there was a lady with a trolley slowly walking the wrong way down the middle of a clearly arrow marked lane absolutely oblivious to all the people having to move out of her way. Its very sad if someone has been dishonest with your fundraising, which i think is a lovely idea. I hope they do pay up.

My daughter is the chair of a young walkers group affiliated to the ramblers. New people can attend 3 organised walks before having to join, but she has told me of people who say they are going to join, but don't, but continue to sign up for walks. The ramblers is a charity and most of the organisers are volunteers, so she gets quite annoyed about people just wanting a freebie. As for car sharing and contributing to petrol costs ... There's always one tight fisted person who seems to think the world owes them everything for nothing!

If I have windfall apples I usually just want to give them away to reduse wastage. I email my neighbours and offer them that way. I get rid of some that way then take the rest to work for anyone to help themselves. Now I'm retired I may have trouble getting rid of them all if I get a bumper crop!

My grandson has been potting up spare plants from my daughter's garden and has been putting them outside with an honestly box for a local charity.
He has been doing quite well - a pound or two every day - but it's a very family-friendly and "traditional" road that you would probably only walk if you were very local.

So sorry to hear people's not-so-positive stories.
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@Pammiel... you didn't sell, so there was nothing to report. What a nosey parker of a neighbour you have.

What a lovely idea teacheranne

I had an abundance of sedums that I was getting rid of so I put them all in my wheelbarrow with a big sign saying free. Placed it all by the end of the driveway,looked out later only to find someone took plants and my wheelbarrow! Flaming cheek.

@polarbear2 I used to work in the NHS too as part of a mental health professional team. I started a tea/coffee/biscuits fund at £1/week for the admin staff, then the rest of the department wanted to join in, many of whom earned 3 or 4 times what we did and would argue that they were only in the office 3 days/week and only wanted to pay 60p. I started keeping a spreadsheet of people's payments. This was OK until some of the 'higher ups' were eating all the biscuits and not actually contributing. Eventually I had to make a point of having a regular item on the monthly team meeting agenda to remind people that I was the lowest paid member of the team (I only worked part time) and that there were several well paid members of the team expecting ME to subsidise their refreshments. I got through to them and actually got some of them to pay a couple of months in advance and is send them an email when their contribution was coming towards an end and they'd give me another £5/10 next time they came into the office. You have to stay on top of things like this.

We used to do this in our walking group. There was one man who didn't give anyone a lift to the starting point of the walk or give anyone a lift back but insisted on having a share of the petrol money that was collected from those who had had lifts.

I have recently started to grow some plants and we had been discussing putting any surplus out for neighbours to help themselves or something similar.

I used to love it when driving through the countryside or small villages and seeing small stalls set out with fruit, vegetables/salad, eggs, honey, preserves etc - some of the things in jars even had pretty homemade labels and list of ingredients (good for people like me with food allergies). I love the concept of honesty boxes and personally would always rather leave a little extra than see it as an opportunity to get fresh/organic homemade produce free or cheap! I did used to be amazed when other cars would pull up and someone would get out, help themselves to items and get back in the car having put nothing in the box. I recall a few, usually smaller, farms or orchards had a 'pick your own and leave something in the honesty box' opportunity - doesn't get any fresher than straight off the tree/bramble etc - even windfall apples, pears either to collect yourself or in baskets or boxes on the stalls. A little bookshop in Hastings used to leave about a dozen boxes of books outside and a note saying to put the money for priced boxes or a donation for books in other boxes through the letterbox - again, bargain books - I do remember posting the money and seeing other money all over the floor - used to wonder why no box or tray to collect the cash as they would have to pick it all up!

I do agree with previous comments though that these days there does seem to be a greater number of people out to get things free, that have no respect for things like honesty boxes, even if the money goes to charity or being able to provide more goods for people who need them.

I may have to think further about what to do with any excess produce I manage to grow - maybe the food bank would be a better option! I did also think about putting boxes of books with an honesty box to raise a few quid for our local animal rescue, but seeing others have had problem neighbours threatening to report them for selling etc I don't want to upset my new neighbours in any way - sad world when you can't even try to do something nice without being condemned, short-changed or robbed.

* Just in the hope some of you might see the funny side of this....most of us are of an age where we know 'Pick Your Own' means collect your fruit then pay for it....my better half told me of a time he was out with mutual friends, went to a PYO place and on the way out one friend thought he would be paid for collecting the fruit rather than having to pay for what he collected - we couldn't believe it as he is about a decade older than me - did think it was funny though, even funnier that he was then told to cough up and pay by the others present and he is notoriously stingy.

How disappointing, PamelaJ, it seems such a lovely thing to do. Do you have a village shop nearby that might sell your packs for you?

I worked in a hospital where the nurses bought tea/coffee/milk for themselves while running clinics. The consultants expected free tea and coffee delivered to them - paid for by the nurses. On the other hand we had an honesty box for patients taking tea and coffee from a plastic dispenser. They always paid up. We were never short. Go figure.

How sad that people are abusing the honesty box system, but I suppose nowadays there just aren't the same "moral standards" as when I was growing up. Where I live, deep in the countryside, there are still honesty boxes for things like free-range eggs; plants; hand made furniture, and people seem to pay up. But having said that, some years ago we had neighbours fresh from a big city and the neighbourhood learned quickly that if it wasn't tied down, it'd disappear - they even stole gates from fields with animals in, to sell on - thus putting the animals at risk of getting onto the road. Times have changed :-(

I came on to see (hopefully) whether the non-payers had been back ?

On the flip side, when I moved I put a load of stuff I didn’t want on the verge with a notice “Free. Help yourself”.
Some people knocked and insisted on paying a bit?