Have you ever found a large amount of money and returned all of it to the rightful owner? What happened when you did that?

I was living in a city where I found a wallet containing $300 cash, along with the owner’s ID and some of his business cards.

It turned out that he owned a local fish market, so I went over there and asked, “Are you [name]?”

When he indicated that he was the person I was seeking, I pulled out his wallet from my pocket and said, “I believe this is yours,” and handed it to him.

His jaw dropped open and he screamed for his wife to come out to meet me, when he saw that all of his money was inside. His wife then screamed, also. (Fortunately, no other customers were in the store, at that time.)

He asked me what my favorite seafood was, and I told him it was lobster, so he wrapped up a dozen tails and handed them to me, smiling and saying, “Never a charge for you!”

I thanked him and left his store, happy that I was able to do something nice for him, and glad that I had found a fish market where I could shop, in the future.

The problem was that, every time I came into his store to buy some seafood, he refused to charge me. It was always free, no matter what I wanted, and when I pleaded with him to let me pay for some of my purchases, he’d get this hurt look on his face, like I was insulting him.

I finally had to stop going there, because I didn’t want to take advantage of his extreme kindess and generosity.

August 28, 2008, 4:06 PM EDT