$20.00 ? 2002? I will take the beating with you Candy. I agree. momsgirl you can always donate a bit to another needy cause or charity(watch how that comes back and smile) but keeping it is okay in my books. When I give or sell something it is my responsibility to check it out and make sure it is empty of anything I may want later and not an accidental give away. A large or substancial sum would burn my moral nerve if I tried to keep it, even the thought niggles.

$20 or $2000. You found something and you know where the owner is.

I'll chime in to say I agree with the "give it back" crowd. Who knows, some good karma may come of it!

A loan receipt? Guess the bank would know who it belongs to also. Don't you think they may need the money? The only right thing to do it give it back.

I would give it back, since I would know exactly whose money it was. Just like if I had a yard sale and left money in the pocket, I'd want someone to return it to me.

I agree to give it back since you know where it came from.
What goes around, comes around...

I'd say give it back also. You cou could createsome good will. Who knows, the person who sold the previous clothes just may have some more to give you. ;)

thank you ladies
if you will hire a private detective and trace down which of the yd sale members own the suit.also which loan company in a city 40 miles from my home they were paying payments to.i will be glad to .and while you are doing that return the flowers to the little old ladies you took from yards.those who had spent their lives in the houses you purchased.

I know I am just a man with no permission to speak, but I have to agree to give the money back. Never know what doors will open because of it.

Sorrel, we're glad to have you express an opinion, also! While you are at it, perhaps you can explain the OP's comment above about us stealing flowers from little old ladies??? I know I may be a little bit senile, but I don't remember doing that!!

momsgirl2 said: "thank you ladies
if you will hire a private detective and trace down which of the yd sale members own the suit.also which loan company in a city 40 miles from my home they were paying payments to.i will be glad to .and while you are doing that return the flowers to the little old ladies you took from yards.those who had spent their lives in the houses you purchased."

Well, for one, it wasn't clear that this was some kind of giant consolidated yard sale with many sellers. To most people, "yard sale" usually means it's held by one house. Therefore, it's not hard to figure out who owned the items you bought. If there's no reasonable way for you to find out who the money belonged to, then you should keep it, considering it was a very small amount. Your time is worth money too, and most likely most people are not going to be irreparably harmed by losing $20. If it were $200, then I, personally, would make a little more effort - because I know how devastated *I* would be if I accidentally left that kind of money in a suit and someone kept it.

I have no idea what you're talking about re people taking flowers from little old ladies. You can't be seriously suggesting that people who buy houses with gardens are "stealing" the flowers that were planted by the previous owner, are you? Because that is patently ridiculous.

I had to jump in. First of all, yay on your clothes find! I don't buy yard sale clothes much as I'm too lazy to pick through it. As for the money issue, not trying to cause trouble, just wanting to help.....You say about hiring a detective to trace down the people. Can't you just go back to the house where the sale was? Just tell them that you were at their recent sale and found some money in a pocket of one of the clothing items. They will either take the money back and thank you a million times for being so honest about it. Or they might say that they don't recall about the clothes....there were a bunch of different folks participating, blah blah, and let you keep it. Just a thought. :-)

OK,I'm new here and probably shouldn't say anything but here's my opinion.Even though the yard sale was a group thing,I'm sure someone knows who the clothing originally belonged to,so it can be tracked down.The right and moral thing to do would be to at least "try" to find out who it belonged to.I know that to some people $20.00 is not a lot of money and hey,it's been in that pocket for 2 years,so why would the person it belonged to "need" it?? Let me tell you a story.Several years ago my husband was unable to work because of medical problems.We had no income and no money.We had one child still at home to feed.We were living on prayers and the generosity of friends and our Church family.It was embarrassing to have to ask anyone to help us.For 2 days all we had in the house to eat was oatmeal and when that was gone there was nothing else.I was cleaning out a closet to see if there were clothes that we could sell to get some money for food and came across a winter jacket that my DH had not worn in a couple of years because it had gotten too small for him.I threw it on the bed in the pile of clothes to sell.My DH came in and picked it up and said,"Hey I forgot about this jacket", and put it on.Of course it was too small but he happened to stick his hand in the pocket and pulled out a 20 dollar bill!Needless to say,we didn't eat oatmeal that night! So,you never know how much $20.00 might mean to someone,even if it has been in that pocket for 2 years.And,as others have said,who knows the blessing you may recieve from returning that money.Just my two cents.
God bless.............................Lillie

MomsGirl2,

I would never judge you, I am just asking you look at this from another angle. First off, it would only take a couple of calls to find the owner of the money. To MY thinking, it is not the money.......it's the "test". You say you got a new job, found clothes which are very hard to find, in YOUR very size, then found the $20.00 in a pocket. Not to mention the dated receipt with a loan # on it. The 20 was a test. Going by what your friend said about being blessed three fold..........think how much you might have been blessed with if you had passed the test! I say go ahead now and blow the bucks, the test is over...............*shaking my head*.....it was sooooooooo simple! Considering the receipt as a clue........it was even an "open book" test.

Don't be angry MomsGirl2.........I have flunked so many times in my life, I want my epitaph on my tombstone to read, " In my lifetime, I was my own biggest disappointment". I'm serious!

Hey, can I borrow 20 bucks?

moms girl---It is great that you're getting out to try something new at 62 years young. I found fifty dollars on a sidewalk in Holland many years ago---I didn't see where it came from and thought briefly about asking around if anyone had lost some money. But I made no effort to find it's owner and still feel guilty that I didn't. My circumstances at the time shouldn't matter--morals should/must be the same for everyone.

I wonder sometimes if I had seen from whom the money came from if I would've returned it--I sure hope so. Perhaps we are all capaple of moments of weakness where our greed outthinks what is 'right'. All I know is that in our world everything changes except good deeds and bad deeds--these follow you like a shadow.

"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion" (Abraham Lincoln)

When I'm good, I'm good...........when I'm bad, I'm really good..............Mae West

I'm curious momsgirl.What did you do?

Everytime I read one of these judgement post I always wonder that the person can't possibly be thinking to put themselves up for all of these tongue lashings. Have some heart people and give this poor person a break, forgive her, to teach her a lesson.

did it ever occur that i might have been the person eating macaroni with butter for three weeks .i used it to pay someone to clean up trash and cut my grass since i am unable to do this chore myself. i am disabled therefore i am on the computer 10 hours a day.
when anyone is looking for angels. they are here turning trash into treasures and shining their halos. i love you all and i have also been on the other side of this game also.i had my rent money $250 in my wallet.it dropped out of my pocket .a freind saw a guy pick it up and go into a restroom. i waited outside ,confronted him and he denied having it.i ask for help from a deputy standing outside the building .he said it wasn,t his business and he could get hurt since he was not armed.i jumped on the accused persons car so he could not leave .he pushed me out of the way and ran around the building. he threw my wallet in a trash barrel and jumped in a waiting car. he was heard at a local bar bragging that he was paying for the party with my money .he knew my name and where i lived.
i also went to a car repair shop .found a wallet $300 in it.checked the drivers license.stepped out of the wating area and ask 'does anyone know mr so and so '. the mechanics all said no.i took this inside the office and ask the manager if he knew this person.he said yes it was one of his mechanics.he called in the man presented the wallet to its owner.the owner said ''well there was nothing in it he could not live with out ''.took it and walked out of the office.
lillie just goes to show if you had cleaned out you closets more often you could have been eating icecream instead of oatmeal.ugh i can,t imagine even buying oatmeal .lol.
this also brings to mind that 2 yrs aftrer my husband oif 22 yrs pat i was having mental problems i was having shock treatments which did away with my short term memory.knowing i was going to be in the hospital i hid my available cash and jewelry,wedding ring ect. that i was not allowed to wear in the operating room .in my favorite hiding place at my home .i had had breakins before.well needless to say i could not remember where i had put these things and to be truthful forgot i had possessed this items. six months later it happen to dawn on me that this items existed and were missing .i ask my kids and mother if they had them. they said no.i began to accuss them of taking my stuff.about 2mnths later it came to me where i had hidden them .i looked ;and there they were !boy did i feel stupid and ashame. these were the only people that had helped me when i was desperately ill and in need.i find it is very funny now 20 yrs later and they do too.

Dear momsgirl,
I certainally did not mean to judge you.That I leave up to God.As far as cleaning my closets out more often,(I don't know if you intended that remark as sarcasim or not??),but maybe I should.However,I believe that things happen the way they do because there is a lesson or a blessing that comes from it.Had I cleaned out that closet sooner that $20.wouldn't have been there when I REALLY needed it!So see, there are always two sides to every story!LOL There may have been a larger blessing to come from the $20.you found had you at least tried to find the owner,but that is between you and your own conscience.Who knows,maybe not,but I firmly believe there has been a lesson to someone in all of this controvercy that has resulted.Ultimately we all have to answer to God for the things we do or don't do,large or small,and for the way we live our lives and deal with life.I am sorry for your hardships,we have all had them at one time or another,but it seems that you are handling yours very well and I wish you more blessings and good fortune in the days to come.
God bless.................Lillie

Last year I found a hundred dollar bill in the parking lot of one of my health club (prepaid by a prize not me) I was not sure we had enough money for gas for hubby to make it to his job interview the next week. We was really in a bad way, unemployment ran out, My job dried up, kids had been havin' a bad time too, dogs got hurt, if it could go wrong it did, type of time. I looked around the lot to see if I could see the owner. But nobody around, I went inside to see if anyone inside was looking, but there was only a few people and they where not looking for anything. I looked again at the bill and saw it was covered with mud and looked like it had been in the ground for awhile. I asked one of the employies if anyone had report a large bill missing. She said no none had reported any money gone she took my phone # and we waited a week. Until time to fill the gas tank then figured it was found money and someone must have been looking out for us. I think it must have been buried in the ground as dirty as it was and since this was the first real hard rain of the year it had just not been uncovered yet. I sure feel for the person who lost it, but it could not have come to us at a better time. Sometimes found money is found money. Oh yea we also lost $200.00 when hubby desided once to save some cash for a gift by hiding it in a old book. Only I think I took the book to a thrift shop when cleaning out a closet. That was at a time when money was not tight and he was grummpy but hoped who ever got it was someone really in need of it. .....It was just lost money. Sometimes lost money is just lost money

Sounds to me like we are not being our usual loving selves!!! I think the money was a blessing to you and that you must have needed it. Myself I clean all pockets, purses and flip through pages of books before discarding them. This is no different than going to a sale buying an article for pennies and finding out that it is worth$$$$$$ Would you take the item back to the person you bought it from...who didn't realize what they had???? Maybe an estate sale where the family is already devestated from the lose of a loved one. I have seen many sales at the big auction houses where someone bought an item for a small amount only to find out it was worth thousands. To me this is the same thing. If it would have an expensive piece of jewelry or a large amount then it would have been right to take it back, or if you would have found it before leaving the sale. This never happens to me...I always buy something and think later "I paid way to much for that" O Well... We still have the best group of people anywhere online!!!!

No body ask for my opion...lol...but I'm giving it anyway....I think it is okay for you to keep it...But I personally would have to try to give it back...Although the last two times I have given money back, the people who lost the money were NOT appreciative and I found myself wishing I would not have given it back...

hehe...I didn't help at all did I...

patti

I'm not going to judge you either because I may have done the same thing. You really don't know until you are put into that postion sometimes. What's the old saying, don't judge a man until you walk in his shoes? What I worry about though if I wouldn't take back the small amount of money or a small priced item I found, why would I think I would take back a higher priced one?

And don't forget the saying about people living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

hey...its just a garage sale, I probably would have kept it too. :)

Gosh, I wasn't even there when the purchase was made or the treasure found....but I sure do feel like I've been scolded! Regardless of what decision you made....your topic brought out a lot of "human nature" and response..

I agree with emptypockets. This thread certainly had me shaking my head in disbelief from time to time! Most of all, though, I'm sorry that momsgirl2 came here to share what she considered happy news, and was scolded by many instead. I doubt she intended to stir up any trouble, and only wanted to share something that had made her day.

Ok -- I get the feeling that momsgirl2 is a spunky lady and can hold her own (just read her responses). I don't think she is at all holed up in her house hiding in a corner. She can hold her own (and I mean that as a fine compliment).

I also hope the 'point' of this site (and life for that matter) is to share experiences and opinions (whatever they may be) and hopefully learn and grow from others. I know I learn something new here everyday.

thanks ladies at least i got some new reading for the membersof this forum and i have always liked a good strong contraversy.do you all expect god to walk up and hand you his gifts.i accepted this as a gift from godand you can do what you want to with your blessings. i accept mine with humility and thanks to the person who worked thrOUGH god to help me.some one told me one time to write down what you ask god for in your prayers theN check this list later and most of the time you will see your question were answered.MAYBE the answer was not instant and sometimes it was NO.
BRIGHT 199 I do see where you got your name from loved you case for the the defense.i am not offended by any of the comments.some of you find your treasure out side some ones trash pile .mine was in the coat of a size 24 leather coat . '' i may not agree with what you say but i do defend your right to say it''AIN,T AMERICA GREAT!!!
MOMSGIRL

Is "Momsgirl" a real person or is someone just having fun?

(Pardon for the rudeness...I should have checked out other posts...I'm sure Momsgirl is not an insane invention. Sorry Momsgirl that I was questioning your validity but your posts are so colorful and entertaining.)

Darn right I would have kept the $20.

As was pointed out, this was money left in someone's clothing pocket FOR TWO YEARS! Hello!

Yard sales are "As is" and "sales final". It goes both ways.

If any of you who are throwing judgements around were at a yard sale, and found an item marked $1 that you knew was worth $100, would you inform the seller? Discrepancies in knowledge and education are what many businesses and professions profit from.

A person who shops the yard sale is doing the seller a favor by helping them get rid of unwanted items AND giving them a few bucks for the unwanted items.

Why in the world should the shopper be obligated to go out of her way to return $20 to the seller, who was in possession of the clothing plenty long enough to check pockets? Didn't the seller even wash the items since last wearing them? Apparently not. Plus, it's quite possible that these clothing items were "donated" by a friend or relative who was equally negligent. It's also possible that the previous owner of the clothing ran an errand for a friend (made the loan payment) and both she and the friend forgot about the extra $20. Who knows? There's no reasonable way she could be sure she was returning the $20 to the "rightful" owner.

Honestly people, lighten up.

Man, pinkfire, you said it all very well. I tended bar several yrs. ago in a 4:00AM club. Went to the bathroom & found $67 wadded up in the corner. Must have fallen out of someones pocket when they used the rest room. I was raising 4 kids alone & it bought groceries. I worked in a little dive bar a few yrs ago, & while cleaning up after closing, I saw a buck on the floor. Rule was if it was on the floor it was yours. It was in front of poker machines. When I unwadded it , it was $100 bill. Told the owner & he said it's yours now. Don't think ANY of us has the right to judge any one else. Congrats, momsgirl. Sometimes our needs are met when we least expect them. You needed & it was there. What someone else considered trash & was getting rid of turned out to be your treasure. "B"

Momsgirl came here to share her good fortune... something she viewed as a blessing from God... and she got sucker punched.

I guess I just don't see Trash To Treasure as the appropriate place for moral judgments. Public humiliation has just never appealed to me.

I know that nobody here wished to appear self righteous or holier than thou... but I, for one, couldn't take reading any more of it. I stayed away until today when I dropped in to see if the onslaught had subsided.

Momsgirl is definitely spunky and she can hold her own.

But it certainly doesn't mean she wasn't hurt by it...

I for one never intended the comments I made as moral judgements or sucker punches!I assume that Momsgirl posted with the consideration that she would get some feedback on the subject, be it good or bad.If I hurt your feelings Momsgirl,please accept my apology.I was only speaking for myself as to what I would have done under the circumstances,as in going back to the place where I got the garment and at least asked if anyone knew who the original owner was.As for some of the other instances of found money where there was absolutely no possibility of finding the owner,I say keep it and consider it a blessing.So sorry if I offended anyone.
God bless...............Lillie

Let me tell you about Momsgirl2. She is my cousin. She has been my protector all my life. She would give you her last dime and the shirt off her back. Life has not always been kind to her. But, she has learned to cope with everything!! She had told me her luck with the dresses and I was HAPPY for her. I considered it a "Blessing" for all she has done for others!

hi walk into a crowd reach down and come up with a $20 in your hand .ask the crowd ''has anyone lost some cash''.i can almost bet someoone will take your $20.
yes i am a real person and i admire all of you with opinions pro or con .love you all .
thanks cus for your vote .i will not have to apologize to my maker for alcohol ,smoking.drugs,stealing ,bodily harm to others .i only have to account to him for the $40 i have found and did not return.hope he will let me in.i will get in line right behind Bill Clinton.maybe that will help St Peter over look my disgration.[lol]

Momsgirl, I think you are someone I would be proud to call a friend. I never did drugs or smoked or stole but I had my problem with alcohol. Lately the problem wants to come back with all my problems with my son. My junk is my escape. I went for a ride last night & found some old windows to play with. Love your Clinton come back. Son is back in hosp. & I chose to come home & check posts instead of going to bar. Please everyone don't judge me for being human too. I see a lot of good in everyone here, & it lifts my spirits to come to this site & relax. I've been going out at night & looking for a bath sink for a house that I have to redo the bathroom with a very limited budget. Wouldn't you know when I need one no one throws one away. Was happy with my 7 windows though. "B"

Awesome choice, B!

Letting your creative juices flow is good for the soul. Hope you find that sink...

What an interesting post. Two sides to the coin (or should I say the $20 bill?lol!)!

momsgirl2 sounds like she comes highly recommended and I don't doubt that she is a fine person. She is the only one that knows the full circumstances of the why she should or why she doesn't need to return the money. I am just intrigued by the discussion this topic has brought up and it's a good one to debate without even having or needing to judge/question momsgirl2. I hope no one minds my sharing my perspective on this topic.

I don't agree with the comments about finding out something is worth $$$$$ after you buy it for pennies at a garage sale as being the same thing as finding money in a pocket of an item found at a garage sale. A coat was for sale...not the $20 in the pocket. If I purchase a cheap painting at a garage sale and find out later that it is worth $$$$$$$ then I've made an honest find! The seller may not have understood or cared about the possible value of her painting but she knew that she was selling a painting and it would be up to her to check it's value if she cared to. It's reasonable to consider that those of us that have had garage sales have sold items for under their value. That's the name of the garage sale game. At the same time...I doubt that any of us would sell a coat at a garage sale thinking "oh...if there's any money in the pockets then I don't care...let it go!" We are under the assumption that the pockets are empty. And if we forget to check? Does that justify someone else keeping any found money? Money left in a pocket is an obvious mistake made by the seller. Also, if you give the money back and they aren't appreciative...does it matter? What matters, in the end, is doing the right thing.

Oprah Winfrey: Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
Real integrity is also doing the right thing, knowing that nobody may care if you did it or not.

That's all...just a newbie who hopes you don't all shoot her down...because I mean no offense.

Not Shooting.... but saying..."In your post you said: The seller may not have understood or cared about the possible value of her painting but she knew that she was selling a painting and it would be up to her to check it's value if she cared to

I say it would be up to the seller to check the pockets... if she cared to...LOL....Same Thing!!

I don't know how everyone else yardsales... If I go, I go early and hit all the sales as quickly as I can...all over town and out in the country. By the time I'm done, I don't know which item I bought where...but then again, I'm senile...Older than dirt! LOL

lol! I knew someone might comment on that but thought I'd wait and see. I suppose, in some ways, it appears to come down to splitting hairs on issues like that but I put myself in the place of a person having a garage sale. Most likely, it would not occur to me to check all the pockets of all the clothes (though it will now! lol!!!). A purse? Definitely. Anyway, it has, on many garage sale occasions occured to me that I am selling something for cheap that may very well have a greater value. Sometimes I end up keeping it and most times I say "oh well". I know if somebody purchases a treasure from me then it's theres. But if they purchase clothing with my money in it then it's obvious (to me) that it was meant to be part of the deal. It reminds me of the time I purchased a chest with drawers. It wasn't until we got it home that we realized the bottom drawer had what appeared to be some older family photos stored in it. I took the photos back because I knew it was an obvious oversight and they wouldn't want to lose their pictures...that's how I see the money too.

I've got to admit too that if I'm out yardsaleing I would most likely not remember which house or where the house was located...it definitely starts to melt into one! But...if, I did, per chance remember, I would return with the money. but...chances of my remembering would most likely be slim! lol!!!!

just to clarify: I meant to say
"...it's obvious (to me) that it was NOT meant to be part of the deal." Dooh!

This reminds me of a story I heard years ago. An elderly woman had recently lost her husband and was having a garage sale to try to raise money to pay her utility bills. A man purchased several old books and when he took them home he found a hundred dollar bill in 2 of the books. He said "I've got to go back to that old woman's house right away!" He did go back to the woman's house and said "Do you have any more old books?" LOL!!!

This is nothing compared to another thread where a woman is bragging about her husband "finding" an expensive brooch of gold and gems in a client's auto in which he was installing a mobile phone. I don't think she ever saw it as stealing.
I think Momsgirl has shown she has a good heart so maybe after reflecting she may reconsider. I wouldn't go to great lenghts for $20.00 but for your own piece of mind you might make just one inquiry.

While recently going through my own clothes to get rid of I found money in pockets of 3 jackets. A $5 bill, a $1 bill and 2 $1 bills. So that is $8 that I had misplaced over the passed year or so and never missed.

A friend found a $20 in a pair of pants at our favorite thrift store. And another time I was at the same thrift store and there were 2 girls (like between 15 & 17) looking in the pockets of all the clothes. Said they often found money.

didnt read tread but got to say one thing, what comes around goes around, next time you loose something and don't find it, remember. A good deed pays itself back tenfold
peace
Ulli

ulli... how do you know that that found money wasn't a pay back from the universe for a cup of coffee that momsgirl bought for someone last year?

you don't. you can't-not even I can, and it's the kind of thing that the faeries tend to tell me when I'm busy sneering at someone else.

but I think the thing that dissapoints me most are the people who sneer- until popular opinion (or a reality check) turns against them, and then the best they can do is claim 'they didn't mean it'...

the holier-than-thou annoy me, but I understand them. the hypocrites just plain annoy me- but cowards really get my goat.

and if Oprah had half the integrity she talked about, she'd have paid the taxes on those cars she 'gave' away to people in need, rather than letting that nasty little surprise pop up on people who couldn't be expected to know better.

Junknstuf- good luck with your hunt, and with your path- that's one of the hardest things to turn away from- I think partially because it's a liquid, and will shape itself into whatever hole you pour it into...it's better to stuff those holes with something stronger- even if it's just rags. I know- and I have the rag rugs to prove it ;)

Chinacat-Maybe Oprah did (or has since the program aired),paid those taxes for the people who won the cars.
"And if Oprah had half the integrity she talks about",couldn't that be construed as a "judgemental" and even a "holier than thou" remark? How do we know anything about Oprah other than what we get from the media? In my opinion the media is not very trustworthy.
God bless...........Lillie

A friend of mine recently lost his father. When he went to donate the deceased's clothing to the Goodwill, he realized that one of the winter coats seemed rather heavy & lumpy. Not finding anything in the pockets he felt around and discovered $50,000 in cash hidden in the lining. Imagine his astonishment. Let this be a lesson to all of us to check, check, and recheck before we donate anything or sell it at a yard sale!