Ethics...

hello all!
havent posted much recently due to work and holidays, but getting my life organised so might drop by a bit more.

anyway, i had an interesting experience a month or so ago... well not really THAT interesting... but anyway..

i was walking to the bus stop after work late one sunny evening, and found a set of keys. car keys - with a big fat 'lexus' logo in tacky fake gold emblazend on the front.

i looked up, and there across the road was a ridiculously expensive looking largish lexus, off gold in colour, with light tan seats.

what to do when i find some keys? hand them to the cops? so i though first i would first surruptitously check to see if the keys matched the car - i didnt want to appear to be breaking in to it, and , the gold edge button on the key ring unlocked the car. i relocked and thought...hmmm...

i ended up wandering up to the near by engineering firm, and the guy said the car was owned by the boss, so i gave him the keys and wandered on my merry way.

several thoughts flittered across my brain at this point.
"that car is probably 7 years after tax salary for me"
"whats would even the point be in stealling it? what would i do with it? i dont know anything about disposal of stolen cars"
"i wonder if the owner had gold teeth to match everything else"
"did i just give the keys to some guy who would steal it anyway?"

after a while of waiting at the bus stop, an older woman with dying blond hair, gold colour blouse, and gold colour shoes trotted across the road to say thanks.
she didnt offer and award - and i didnt ask her for one. all i did say was that she owes a big favour to the 'international favour bank' sometime to some other stranger.

so - what would you do?
steal it?
have a drive around the block for the sheer thrill before handing in the keys?
chuck to the keys down the drain as punishment for be so ridiculously well off?
offer fashion tips suggesting that her fetish for gold coloured objects make her look f*cking pretentious?
leave the keys there for someone else to deal with?
post the keys with the a note with the location of the car to a charity so they can cash it in?
lock the keys in the car?

you probably couldn't have locked the keys in as it was a button car(unless you locked yourself in the car :P)

thats a really tricky one, i think it could also depend on who i was with. i'd prolly just hand them in to someone but it would be very tempting to throw them down the drain

ps. hey dentrassi, go firetwirling that thurs before christmas? bit stormy for me!

Hello, hello, well.....in my opinion, you should try and give the keys back, even if it was a pain for you to find the person. So what if the car was worth more that 7 years salary??....there will always be more people with more money....spending it on crap and being frivilous when, I'm sure that there are more important things than a nice car.....but, I really don't think that that is what should factor into your decision....you should think, "wow, it would really suck if I lost my keys"...so, for that reason alone, you should find the poor sucker and give them back their crappy car and chalk it up to what comes around goes around.

Ps...my boss used to drive a lexus...and let me drive it once or twice(also gold with those gross tan seats), and really....it did suck.

ok....so how about you hide the keys....and leave a note guiding the person to point A, where said person would not find the keys, but find another note...like a scavenger hunt. This way, you've done a good thing, the person will get their keys back, and if you stick around long enough...you, too will be slightly entertained...everyone's happy!!

I like Catalyst's Idea. Its nice...

i;d give them back. no question.

i might regret it later though...

Why regret it? Surely the answer is easy: Give the keys back.
I see absolutely no point or benefit, spiritually or physically for anyone in throwing away the keys; or stealing; or locking the keys in the car.
I like it when people help me out randomly and so really like being able to do the same to other people.

Something similar happened to me once. I found a very nice convertible Mercedes in a car park with the keys in the boot. I locked it and then walked down all the shops in the street asking who owned the car. A curious expression was on the face of the lady who said yes, and got a funnier look when I made her confirm the number plate (maybe she thought it'd just been crashed into off) and then looked completely bewildered and thankful when I handed her her keys and wandered off.

The more people do good stuff to each other the better the world would be.

It's always slightly depressing when you do something decent, or the right thing, and people are surprised.

It's as if people expect everyone else to be thieves and robbers and untrustworthy.

Never reinforce that stereotype.

Golden Rule! What would you want someone else to do if you lost your keys, and they found them?

well, its nice to know noone here is particularly spiteful

i only really thought about locking the keys in the car so noone else could steal the car - but at least the owner could see where they were. i may have done that if i couldnt find the owner of the car.

the only thing that really made me think about it, was wondering whether she has or will ever make a fair contribution to the international favour bank in return... oh well, i suppose thats up to her now.

to be honest i dont think i even could have thought about doing something nasty at the time. my natural instinct is to be helpful - only on the 1 hour bus trip home after did my mind begin to wander down more scheming ways.

I think you did the right thing.

Although it sounds like the owner of said vehicle was the kind of arrogant f*** you would expect to see in such a car (well.... judging by that reaction you got)... I would say it's always better to hand it back expensive toys to the children who lost them. Honesty is a better quality than wealth.

(mind you.. I can see how tempting it would be to see how many rpm it han handle before the gasket blows )

You did the right thing little chicken.

I know I would be wiggin out if I lost my car keys.

I've always handed back wallets and such back (so the good cycle returns them when i loose these things).

DAM WALLETS

So I'm not getting a lexus for my birthday?

t'would appear not