Finders Should Not Be Keepers

Now:

I am amazed by the number of coins I find on the road when I go running. I wonder if these coins just fall out of pockets or do people drop them intentionally. Most often these coins are pennies. If the penny lands heads up I always pick it up for good luck. If it is tails up, I flip it over for the next person to pick up the good luck. If Shannon is running with me she likes to pick up the pennies after I have flipped them over. She says that I am passing the good luck on to her. Dimes, nickels, quarters, heads or tails, I pick them up. I have a special jar that I put these coins into and they don't add up to much, but they make me think about the people who dropped them and the people who will pick up the pennies I left behind. I say a little prayer for them that God will protect them when they are walking or running on the road.

Then:

When my children were little, but old enough to know what money was, if we were in a store and they found a coin on the floor, I would always make them take it to the owner or manager. They didn't like that. I told them that the store belonged to the owner, therefore the coin did also. I explained that if they had a friend over and their friend found a coin on the floor of their bedroom, they would not expect their friend to keep it. They would expect their friend to give it back to them. Reluctantly, they would take the coin to the owner and explain that they found it on the floor. Most of the time they were rewarded for their honesty by the owner as he or she would thank them for being honest and then allow them to keep the money. However, this did not always happen, and those I think were the best lessons. My goal was to teach my children to do the right thing whether it came with a reward or not. I wanted them to learn that the best reward was in knowing that they had made a good choice. Judging by the terrific adults they have become, I think they learned that lesson. Hmmm, who would the coins on the road belong to?