The fact is that you can't just cash in a bar of gold without it being authenticated and the origin proved. Obviously they would have been asked where it was from and it would have come out that it was 'stolen' if the vendor suspected anything. They really didn't have that much of a choice and people talk; it's not as if something like this would be kept quiet in a community either.
In the area where I live there was a time when many immigrants from Europe lived in the houses, these people did not trust banks, or use things like safe deposit boxes. What they would do is open up areas in the house and stash away things for safe keeping. There are plenty of stories of workman or future owners coming a crossed one of these long forgotten stashes. One fellow told me how he had went to repair a milk chute. In the old days the milk man would put milk in a chute by the door. They pried up a door and there was a package with jewelry which turned out to be worth a substantial amount of money. the workman gave it to the owner that tracked down the former owner. Turned out it was that owners grandmother that placed it there. The family was looking for these things for years. If it were me I would always return what I found.
It would be painful, but I would return it too. I would not want karma to come back and bite me in the butt. I would just hope that the owner would give me a little reward for the find.
Karma works that way, my friend. And sadly, we were both too young and stupid at that time. But like you said, confronted with a $50,000 gold bar, who knows what we will do? I'm hoping though that I would do the right thing and surrender what's not rightfully mine. Or like I said, just donate it to charity instead of using it to my own wants. I do understand though if other people won't do the same, it's their choice and I cannot force them to do what I would do in that situation.
I am thinking that what we would say we would do and what we would do might be two different things. I would like to think that I would return it, but may that would be nice to just put in the back pocket. Of course when it is something that you need to have valued and all of that it become a little more difficult, so it is still an exciting find for sure.
I'm surprised to hear that they did the right thing and contacted the homeowner! I know how tempting that had to have been for them! I'm happy to know they used integrity instead of greediness.
They indeed do the right thing. Taking something that doesn't rightfully belong to you is wrong. Beyond the ethical aspect, there could have been legal repercussions too.
You have to ask yourself, what's my integrity worth? $5, $500, $50 000, $1/2 million? Everyone's integrity has a price tag, some just value it a lot higher then others. A lot of times they justify it with some mystic mumbo-jumbo regarding God or Karma or other such non-sense. But at the end of the day, everyone will sell out for the right price.
Its a good move for a business to be known for being honest in homes where they are working, particularly when the temptation would have been so high to just slip that ingot into a pocket. Plumbers in the UK make fairly good money, £80,000 ($110,000 US) a year is possible with enough overtime, if that article is referring to Canadian Dollars, then the bar is 'only' worth about $37,500 US dollars, that wouldn't be too much for a plumber over here, particularly when weighed against the negative publicity that being found out to have stolen it would cost a company.
Finders keepers has always been a childish thing in the first place. Simply because you find something doesn't mean it's automatically yours and that you shouldn't at least try to find the original owner. I'm glad that in this case their brain overpowered their potential greed and they actively sought out the owner.
