MiddenMonster
Bronze Member
Went to an estate sale in a very nice neighborhood this afternoon and looked for the usual items I seek out: Music CD's, tools, firearms and partly filled bottles of good booze at a low price. I struck out on all counts, but then wandered into one of the bedrooms to take a quick glance. There was a lady in there who was examining a satin/silk type robe that to me looked like a cross between something very Oriental and a flashback from the 1960s. I told her that it looked very psychedelic, and she started to put it on. I then started to walk out of the room and casually said to her as I was leaving to, "Check the pockets". She did and commented that there was a tissue in one of them. I had just stepped out of the room when she exclaimed, "Wow!" and mentioned to another lady in the room that I had just told her to check the pockets. This caused me to turn around, at which point I saw her holding a fan of $100 bills, crisp except for a single fold where they had been folded in half. Turns out that it was 8 $100 bills. My first statement to her was that she should buy the robe. She laughed and said that she was honest, and gave the money to the people running the estate sale. I don't mind saying that I would have been conflicted to some degree in that situation, but if I found the money before I bought something I probably would have done the same. However, I can't say for sure if I had bought something and found the money on the way back to my truck I would have done so. And I know for sure that if I had gotten something home and found the money I would have kept it with no hint of guilt.
Two things I did walk away from this experience with is that even if you don't keep what you found, there is still a big thrill in finding that kind of a stash, and even if you are standing next to the person who finds it there is a big thrill when they find it. And because I almost didn't go to this estate sale, maybe my whole purpose here was to make the comment that caused this lady to reach into the pockets, find the money and turn it in to the estate sale people. Even after they take their cut there is still a lot of that money that will end up in the hands of the family. If I didn't make that comment, or a different lady tried on the robe and stuck her hands in the pockets it may have turned out very differently.
Two things I did walk away from this experience with is that even if you don't keep what you found, there is still a big thrill in finding that kind of a stash, and even if you are standing next to the person who finds it there is a big thrill when they find it. And because I almost didn't go to this estate sale, maybe my whole purpose here was to make the comment that caused this lady to reach into the pockets, find the money and turn it in to the estate sale people. Even after they take their cut there is still a lot of that money that will end up in the hands of the family. If I didn't make that comment, or a different lady tried on the robe and stuck her hands in the pockets it may have turned out very differently.
