Hidden Forty

I have a carpenter painting and doing some work on a door and equipment at our business. This morning as he was moving some cabinets he found some small towels wrapped up between the unit and the wall. When he unfolded the towels there was forty dollars in the towels. This happened right before I arrived. My wife was already there and told him he could keep the money.

The interesting part of the story is the particular renter that left this money behind was the evil one who was trying to steal and destroy our business just recently. Normally I return any lost money or goods to the rightful owner, but in this situation I never had control of the money in order to do so.

I asked the carpenter if he would like to wrestle me for the money, but he said no, that I would probably win!

So, anyway, I felt strange as I drove by other business where the evil person now works on my way to get fuel and breakfast, with a feeling of incompleteness knowing that I couldn't return the forty dollars to its rightful owner, no matter how despicable she might be.

Several weeks ago as Miss Despicable was trying to pay me for two weeks rent instead of one, and doing it a day earlier than normal, she accidentally gave me a fifty dollar bill in the mix instead of a twenty. When I pointed this out, that she was trying to pay me $30 too much, the other renters in the other room overheard our conversation and jokingly and veRy loudly chastised me, saying in siLLy grouchy overlapping unison, "WHY did you tell her?!?!? We could have had a party with that money!!!" - and they teased me again the next day when I collected their rent on the normal collection day.

I feel strangely sad today for a variety reasons, mainly grief at the recent loss of my friend and mentor Eddie. That has its own mix of problems with greedy people interfering who are clueless to the reality of business and the probate process. I am not sure I ever reaLLy have too many enemies, at least from my point of view, for veRy long at aLL.

Mitch

I read a news article about a traveler named Mitch Gilbert, of Greenwood Village, Colorado, who found $10,000 cash in envelopes in a cab at the Las Vegas airport. He was able to finally get the money returned to the rightful owner. 

I was able to find Mitch's phone number on the internet because he has a business.  I talked to him a few minutes ago and congratulated him on his honesty. I told him I would have done the same thing. I don't like having things that don't belong to me, things I haven't earned, purchased or been properly gifted. He told me that he has got a lot of negative feedback from people, including an e-mail that cussed him out!

Link to CNN Article

I Thought It Was Meat

The first word "I" in the title of this blog post is not me. The title is from a line in a story I heard today from a customer at our business.

The third word "It" from the title is a pronoun, but in this case a very strange package, with aluminum foil on the outside.

A minimum wage cleaner who works for a motel was asked to clean out a room that had a guest suddenly leave. He works for an oil company and went to another job site. But he didn't properly check out of the motel, so his belongings were gathered up by the cleaner. The hotel manager/owner told the cleaner that she could have anything left of value in the refrigerator and throw the rest away. So she did.

The manager walks in during the clean-up and notices an aluminum foil package at the very top of the trash can contents. He asks, "where did this come from?"

The cleaner says, "It was in the freezer, I figured that it was a piece of meat."

The manager opens up the suspiciously shaped package. It has 30 items in it. Each item is a 100 dollar bill.

$ 3 0 0 0 - - - yes, 3 followed by 3 zeros

-In the trash can-

The bills were checked for integrity. They were not counterfeit.

He keeps the money. The cleaner is shocked. She was hoping that he would split the money with her. He told her that she threw it away. Finders keepers, losers weepers - as we would say as children.

He plans to hold the belongings in storage for a month, so if you happen to be reading this and you suddenly remember that you left my city for another job site and forgot your $3000 in your hotel room refrigerator, can I have a finders fee?