LL,
I just re read my own post and caught the tip reference you made, a pun perhaps? I missed it.

At a Howard Johnsons Restaurant, I was at the checkout, waiting to pay, when I noticed a wad of cash on the floor. It was just off the interstate, and I pictured someone getting 50 miles down the road and discovering it missing. I asked the cashier to put it aside in case someone came back for it. She didn't understand why I didn't just put it in my pocket and leave. I told her "because it's not mine." I don't think she grasped the concept.

I return it regardless. Because you could be on camera, you could make someone else's day miserable and karma's a bitch I say. ;)

I voted for keep it always. Even when they have you on camera. Even when presented with the cold facts.
Deny, Deny, Deny. Just keep shrieking "It's MINE!" thrash and continue shrieking.

At a certain point they'll just give in and let you keep it. You just need to figure out their price point.

The poll does not cover my kind of response: return excess change to the cashier, because there is a connection there, however brief. Amount would be irrelevant. The poor cashier does not want an overring.

But found money on the ground, I keep, if there is no plausible claimant there looking for it. But I'm not going to be solely opportunistic about it either... the restoring of a larger sum to whomever lost it should certainly be tried, I think. So maybe the amount does have its effect after all.

I've turned away a sawbuck for curing a bad case of hiccups in a restaurant once. Nice gesture, and I appreciated it, but I'd like to think I just said to the guy that he should offer the hiccup cure to the next poor fellow in need of it.

If I get given too much change, it kind of depends where I am at as to whether I let on. Most of the time, I do so before I have had a chance to think about it. There have been odd occasions when such carelessness on the assistant's part has coincided with me being ridiculously broke, in which case I haven't spoken up. Instead I have walked outside feeling a slightly guilty glee.

What I tend not to speak up on, is if they've tilled an item wrong. A few weeks ago I went shopping at TKMaxx and an item that should have been charged at around £45 was instead charged at £10. I didn't say anything about that :P On the other hand I have also had experience of being handed goods and the assistant not asked for the money (where there's been some to-ing and fro-ing with returns and so on) at which point I have offered the money :P

If I find money, well it depends where I find it, and whether or not there's any likelihood of the owner getting it back if I don't take it. A tenner on the street, I will pick up and then look around and see if I can spot anybody hurrying along looking at the floor, or searching through pockets for lost money. If nobody shows after a minute or so, I pocket it and go on my way. If I find it in a purse or wallet, it depends on if there is identification and how much money there is, along with where I have found it.

On the whole, anything substantial I would try and see returned to the owner. Any personal possession (like a purse or wallet) as opposed to just cash on the ground, I consider is likely to bring someone looking for it. If I;m on a country lane, I'll place the item on a low wall near where it was found in case the owner comes looking. If it's just outside a shop I'll take it inside. I'd only hand it in to the police if there are identifying items inside or a substantial sum of cash.

*shrugs*

If I find/receive money and I know who the rightful owner is, I give it back.
If I find money and I don't know who the owner is, and can't easily find out, I keep it without a second thought.