If it's on his land and no one else can rightfully claim it, then I know that it legally belongs to the land owner. I don't have to assume anything. If someone else can be tracked down as the owner, then I know that they own it - no assumptions required here either. In neither case am I the owner simply because I found it.
I did think about it, which is why I commented on it.
What I keep hearing here is that it's okay for me to do something that both the property owner and the law may have a problem with, just as long as I don't let anyone know about it. Do I really need to point out the problems with this rationale? Do I need to keep presenting other examples where this is obviously not okay? I know that some (most?) people would take the money and run. We both know what's going on here though. I can completely understand this approach, but the attempts at justifying it ("What he doesn't know won't hurt him!") make my head hurt.
Yes, if I found a cache on your land and ran off with it without saying anything, you wouldn't be angry because you didn't know about it. But what if you did know? Most folks would be mighty angry and rightfully so. Why is it right in one case and wrong in the other? How is an act that would be wrong if the victim knew about it suddenly right if they're deceived? I'm having trouble understanding this. Sure, I can understand how that would allow me to get away with it, but I don't understand how it makes it right.
I suppose that Jeff is right, and that one can't truly know how they'd respond in this situation until it happens. I'm basing my opinions on earlier situations (admittedly with lower stakes) and how I handled them when no one was looking. I'd like to think that I'd continue in this way, but as I mentioned earlier in this thread, everyone has a price where greed overtakes integrity. I don't know my price yet. Maybe, just maybe, a bag or two of gold is that price. I'd like to think that I'm worth more than that but I honestly don't really know. Should I ever find a bag of gold under these circumstances, I will report back about how I conducted myself - in suitably vague terms, of course.
What if it was something worth a lot more than arrow heads, ginseng, nuts, berries, etc.? Would you still not care?