Real-Life Decision Making
You are a custodian working for a cleaning company. Four nights a week,
you clean office buildings in an industrial center. Since the offices are
small, you work alone. You've been entrusted with your own set of keys,
since most of the buildings are empty by the time you arrive.
The work is hard, but you enjoy keeping active. You tell yourself it's
better than sitting behind a desk. The money isn't great, but working
evenings lets you spend time with your daughter during the day.
It's nearly midnight when you pull up into the parking lot of the
last office building. You've spent six hours mopping, swiping
and scouring. All you want to do now is clean this office as quickly as possible
and head home to bed.
You unlock the front door and head down the hallway toward the closet where
the vacuum cleaner is kept. Suddenly, you spot a piece of paper on the carpet.
You lean down to investigate. To your surprise, it looks like a $100 bill.
Even though you know you're alone, you glance around quickly to make
sure no one is watching you. Then you pick up the money.
As you stare at the money, you think about the new video game your daughter
has been begging you to buy her. Normally, you can afford only to buy used
video games. Imagine how surprised she would be at breakfast tomorrow morning,
if you told her the two of you were going shopping to buy the game she wanted!
You tell yourself that the person who lost the money will probably never
miss it. After all, anybody who carries this much cash around must make a
lot of money. And they won't know where they lost the bill. You would
never come under suspicion. It would be so easy.
What do you do?