Would you Return the Cheese?

Connie1013, if you had found the cheese, then you would probably have been meant to keep it.

Julia, this is the middle of winter in Canada, so the outside temperature was much cooler than the refrigerator in the store, so the cheese would not have suffered. I was in the store for only a few minutes and the cheese was not there when I went in. I think for it to have been contaminated by a 3rd party would be highly unlikely, although I agree with you, some people are pretty twisted and your point about someone deliberately contaminating the cheese is a good one, but I didn't think about that at the time.

I would have returned it but not necessarily for altruistic motives. While the cheese was sitting in the cart in the parking lot (I assume) it was not under the control of the store. Any sicko could have injected some toxin into the cheese (think Tylenol from the 80s). More likely, while sitting in the cart in plastic packaging, the cheese warmed to temperatures favoring the growth of pathogenic bacteria such as Listeria & Salmonella. If you've ever had food poisoning, you'd return the cheese to the store and express your concerns to the manager. Food establishments do not need the negative publicity of a foodborne outbreak.

One of my friends put forth the argument that the store probably just kept it and put it back on the shelf and when and if the customer called they were probably told that the loss of the cheese was their problem. I said, then that would be on their conscience, not mine. I figure I did the right thing, and I have no regrets.

I doubt that the store put it back. I would have done what you did. Here's what I think If everything we did could be considered a brick- and we were all building a world for the next generation, every misplaced, careless brick or ruined brick would make a hole in what we were all building., then anytime someone acts selfishly or immorally they create a hole in the structure. People don't realize that when they scrap their self worth for a package of cheese or any such thing, they have affected the whole of mankind. And made themselves a bit more worthless in their own eyes.

So far I have lived a very fortunate life, so maybe you have something there.

I often wonder about this idea of karma. Does that mean that the person that lost it was deserving of bad karma? I am really curious.

So far the majority of people who have responded agree with my actions and say they would do the same thing. Then they say that most people probably wouldn't. If the responses are any indication, I would say that most people probably would return the cheese.

I don't think honesty is an attribute that is held in very high esteem by many people. However, when I go to bed at night or look myself in the mirror I feel pretty good about myself. I am not perfect by any means, but I do try to do the right things. I don't entirely disagree with the concept of finders, keepers, but it depends on the situation. I found $20.00 on the road the other day and gave it to my friend that I was walking with, because it is good luck to give away money that you found. She didn't want to take it, but I said it was as much hers as mine, and she could buy me lunch one day. I recall one time I went to the local exhibition with a friend and on the way home I found a dime on the road and gave it her. That day she won the car that was being raffled, so it was good luck for her. I thought about taking the cheese and telling the store manager that I had found something in the parking lot and to contact me if anyone called him about an item they had lost, but I didn't particularly want to have to babysit 10 lbs of cheese, and have to worry about storing it properly. If the store ended up selling it twice, it would be fair compensation for all the losses that most have to endure from theft.

You really do have a good attitude and it's too bad everyone couldn't be liked you.

See, look how much distress was caused for you because someone was thinking only of themselves. Whoever ended up with your wash powder probably has trouble to this day with stains in their clothing that won't come out, ha ha.

Good points. The cheese had not been there very long because I was only in the store for about 10 minutes and it was not there when I went in.

Well, at least my husband is on my side. It was actually his sisters who disagreed with me.

I love grilled cheese sandwiches too, but I think if I had kept the cheese it would have been hard to swallow. Read over the responses and you have to conclude that the people who would have returned it far outnumber the ones who would have kept it. I think I did the right thing, too.

I have a good idea of how long it was out there. It wasn't there when I went in, and when I returned about 10 minutes later it was there. Also, it was a cold winter day in Canada, so it could have been there for a week and not suffered. You are right, it wasn't mine, which made the choice clear to me.

See, yet another person who would have done the same as me. Thank you for your reply.

I agree very much with your actions. If parents don't teach their children right from wrong, where are they going to learn these things?

Thank you for your kind words. However, as someone else pointed out the owner may not have even returned to claim the cheese, and where is the guarantee that the store would have even given it to them if they had returned.

Speaking of money, I found a $20 bill in the lobby of my bank one day, and I went in and told the manager to call me if someone claimed that they had lost a sum of money. He asked me if I wanted to give it to him for safekeeping, and I told him no, that I could keep it just as safe as he could. I never heard from him so I kept the $20.

I actually thought about just leaving it there, because it was a fair distance back to the store, but then it would have bugged me, which is why I took it in. I don't know. I think a lot of people would have returned it.

I don't particularly care for processed cheese. However, I do have 2 very large dogs that love cheese and I could have added it to their dinner and they would have loved me for it, but it wasn't mine to keep. Actually, you wouldn't get diarrhea from cheese, you would get constipated, ha ha.

The only thing that really bothered me about my friends' opinion is that they really thought they were right and were very scornful about what I did. I thought it was interesting that we could be friends and differ so greatly in something as basic as this.

Do you really think that it is a character flaw to decide to keep the cheese. If the person who left it never returned to claim it, then the store benefits as someone else pointed out. From my own perspective, the cheese wasn't mine. I didn't pay for it, but I had no way of determining who did. I could have taken it and put it in the dumpster in the back of the store and probably fed a bunch of homeless people, but never thought of that either. A few years ago I went into a department store and purchased a bunch of sewing items, including a couple of feet for my sewing machine, a package of threads with sewing machine needles and several other items. As I was walking to my car, I was thinking about the fact that the amount I had paid seemed to be quite a bit less than what I should have paid. So, I checked the bill and saw that I had been charged a penny for an item that should have been about $35.00. The correct amount had not been entered into the computer. So, I went back to the store, and told them that they had charged me the wrong price for one of my purchases. The clerk called the department manager over and said, "Can you believe this? This woman is complaining because we undercharged her." I said, "You will lose a lot of money if you don't correct the price in your computer." They would not charge me the full price. I think I ended up paying $10.00, but the department manager said, "Why on earth would you come back?" How can you answer a question like that? Because in my opinion, it was the right thing to do.

Thank you. I am blessed with a clear conscience.