Then end of a long week. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to buy coffee. I’d used up the last I had at breakfast and Saturday mooring without coffee seemed unimaginable. I picked up a few other things, but too few to bother a cashier, so I wheeled my mini-cart over to the self checkout area.
No lines. Although I generally prefer the way products flow when I shakeout on the left, I opted for a machine in the right where there was more room. My head was slightly out of the game, thinking about how relaxed I’d be once I got home and into my comfy clothes. I pressed the button to begin and reached for the first item to scan when my attention was redirected elsewhere. Sticking out from the machine were 2 crisp twenty-dollar bills.
Someone had clearly asked for cash back, then neglected to take it.
I put my item back in the cart and took the money over to the store employee in charge of monitoring the self-checkout area. He came back with me, saw that I hadn’t begun the checkout process yet and typed in his code to see if he could retrieve a copy of the previous patron’s receipt. Thank goodness I hadn’t rung anything up. He got the receipt! He thanked me profusely, then went of to see what was to be done with found money.
As I continued checking out I thought about who might have left it behind. Maybe a single mom, maybe a veteran or a senior citizen. Maybe someone less needy. A 20 something planning a night of carousing. It doesn’t really matter, though, does it?
I know some people might think me nuts: “Finders keepers, losers weepers”. But it just didn’t seem to be the right thing to do. For the record, I slept well last night and not because it was the end of a long week.
booksandbassets 
That is such an easy mistake to make and whoever that person was, I hope they had enough faith in humanity to call to see if they were able to retrieve their forgotten Andrew Jacksons.
You did the right thing. That forty dollars might be all they had left to spend for the week or something like that. Kudos to you!
Glad there are good people in the world, like you, who would not see this as an opportunity to pocket the money, but to be of help. I’m sure he was very thankful too.
I am totally with you on finding the person who forgot their money! It’s like we get chances to do something and we just feel good when we do the right thing!
So glad you did that for someone. You deserved the good night’s sleep! And at first I thought the story was going to be finding some forgotten money tucked away in your billfold…I love it when that happens.
Kind and honest. I believe that goodness grows goodness and you contributed to it.
You did the right thing – and that person will be grateful for it, once they realize their mistake.
Well done!!!!
And what a wonderful surprise the cash-back-er got when they got the call!
You absolutely did the right thing!
It feels good to help someone out, even if the someone doesn’t know you. I hope whomever it was came back for the money!
Good for you! You are correct, it doesn’t matter who left the 2 twenties there…and you did everything you could have to help them out. We all would want someone exactly like you to do the same thing if we were the absent minded ones that left the money there.