What would you do?
About a month ago, my wife and I started our own joint checking account at the local bank and made our first deposit with the cash and checks we recieved from our wedding day. The girl gave us our receipt and we happily went on our way. So Thursday night my wife answers the phone and it is the branch manager from the bank. After introducing herself, she asked my wife if we were aware of a mistake regarding our deposit, which naturally my wife replied no. She then informed her that the cash was never deposited into the account. Evidentally, the teller accidentally forgot to collect the cash envelope and unbeknown to us we left with the cash in one pocket and the receipt in the other confirming the full amount of the deposit. The manager went on to say the bank is writing it off as a loss until further investigation. As for the sweet, young teller who helped us, her job was on the cutting block as you can imagine.
So what do you know (true story!)…the next day as I jumped in my truck to head off to work I find the envelope full of cash in my left jacket pocket. What a miracle right? Just so happen to put on my coat that day as they were calling for a drop in temperature later in the day (which by the way I didn’t wear all week). So the first thing I do is immediately call the bank to tell the manager of the good news. To say she was happy is an understatement. She thanked us repeatedly for our honesty and told us that we just made the teller’s Christmas holiday a whole lot merrier. I told the manager the teller was more than helpful and deserving of a raise for her great customer service.
A few hours later after reflecting back on the whole incident, I couldn’t help but imagine what life would be like if I never called the bank back to tell them I found the money. The more I thought about it though, the more I knew I made the right decision and the better I felt about myself. Although it was a bit tempting, I like to believe most other people would have done the same thing in my situation. Nothing’s worse than waiting for karma to come back and bite me in the butt. Trust me, it usually does too.