Mel Greig: When your moral compass is put to the ultimate test

Ever thought your moral compass worked too well? I had 30 seconds to work out what to do in a situation this week and I surprised myself with what I chose to do.

I want you to put yourself in this situation . . . . You’re walking down the street and you see a $50 note lying on the footpath . . . the nearest people to the money are facing the other way waiting to cross the street . . . no one is looking around and this $50 is just lying there.

Surely majority of people in that situation would quickly snatch up the $50 note before anyone noticed it was there?

I stood there staring at this $50 with so many thoughts going through my head . . . 30 secs of contemplating went past and a lady walked past and saw the $50 . . . she looked at me and I shrugged.

She waved the money around and asked if anyone had dropped it, but everyone was either rushing or looking at their phones not really paying attention to her. She shrugged, put it in her pocket and walked into the sunset.

So, why didn’t I pick it up? Well, this is where my moral compass comes into it.

All I could think about when I looked at that $50 was, who does it belong to? I pictured a single mother who would later get home and cry over losing that $50 from her pocket and I couldn’t bear to actually spend the money not knowing where it had come from.

If I had picked it up, I would have put it in a charity tin or given it to the homeless man curled up in the corner near the lights.

I know that some people might think that’s ridiculous and that I should have picked it up and spent it, I’m living in Bondi now, so I need every cent I can get but I just couldn’t spend someone else’s money.

If I had seen a rich and arrogant businessman drop the cash and walk off, I would have happily
bought two smashed avocados on toast because I don’t think he would have truly missed that
money.

To me, the difference with keeping money that doesn’t belong to you is knowing and understanding where it has come from.

I remember a past boyfriend watching the news and some naughty people had misplaced their illegal drug money and a good Samaritan handed it into the police station, but he was adamant that had he known it was dirty money he would have happily kept it to himself.

I didn’t know the story of the $50 and even though it wouldn’t have been my fault if I did pick it up
and spend it, the thought of someone sitting at home crying over that money just doesn’t sit well
with me.

What would you have done in that situation?

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