I came across a great story on Yahoo the other day. It was about a man who found money in his attic (at least $45,000), and returned it to the children of the previous owner.
Josh Ferrin recently closed on his new home in Salt Lake City, Utah (actually, in the suburb of Bountiful), and decided to take a look in the attic. He found a metal box that contained a bunch of money:
Then he found seven more boxes, all stuffed full with tightly wound rolls of cash bundled together with twine — more than $40,000. Ferrin quickly took the boxes to his parent’s house to count. Along with his wife and children, they spread out thousands of bills on a table, separating the bundles one by one. They stopped counting at $40,000, but estimated there was at least $5,000 more on the table.
Can you imagine how they must have felt after finding this much cash? I would have loved to see the look on his face the moment he made this discovery. Here is how he describes his reaction to the “found money”:
“I freaked out, locked it my car, and called my wife to tell her she wouldn’t believe what I had found,” said Ferrin, who works as an artist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
I remember the feeling that I had if I found money, even if it was only $1! This amount wouldn’t allow us to completely pay off our debt, but it could get us a long way there! But the “right” thing to do would be to try and track down the owner, and return the money.
Found Money And Proven Character
For many of us, this found money would be enough to pay off debt completely! It would mean the difference between bankruptcy and financial freedom. When you consider the fact that many people have to support themselves and their families on less than this for an entire year, it makes it easy to see how someone would keep this discovery to themselves!
Mr. Ferrin battled with that temptation as well, but chose to overcome it:
“I’m not perfect, and I wish I could say there was never any doubt in my mind. We knew we had to give it back, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t think about our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren’t able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought,” Ferrin said. “But the money wasn’t ours to keep and I don’t believe you get a chance very often to do something radically honest, to do something ridiculously awesome for someone else and that is a lesson I hope to teach to my children.”
As a Christian, this is the type of response that I love to see. When someone has a chance to either do the right or wrong thing – especially when it comes to money – and they choose to do right, even though they can probably their deed(s) from people.
Here is how the story ended for Ferrin:
He thought about the home’s previous owner, Arnold Bangerter, who died in November and left the house to his children. Bangerter purchased the home in 1966 and lived there with his wife, who died in 2005. After most of the money was counted, Ferrin called one of Bangerter’s sons with the news.
Reading about how he handled this found money makes me realize that there are still people out there who consider the well-being of others when making decisions. He can be a good example of doing the right thing!
Examine Yourselves
I think that this story presents a great opportunity for each one of us to look inside our hearts and determine what our reaction would have been. Before everyone proudly states that they would give back the money, keep two things in mind.
First, this story would not have been one of the most popular articles on the day in which it was released, unless it was highlighting something abnormal! The story had over 9,000 comments – many of them stating how they were shocked and/or pleasantly surprised by Ferrin’s actions!
Also, remember that it can be very easy to assume that we will be able to overcome a particular temptation, until we are thrown in the middle of it! Many people have an attachment or even love toward money and what it can do for them. Listen to what the bible has to say about that:
If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. ~ 1 Timothy 6:8-10
As we see from the verses above, the desire to be rich can lead us into much temptation, which can end in ruin and destruction. We are told that because some have a “love of money” (lit. affection for silver), that some leave the faith!
So, be sure to take the time to think about what you are willing to do for money. Evaluate your heart and search for any sin – especially look for pride and affection for money – confess it to the Lord, and put it to death!
Reader Questions
- Would you have given this money back to the previous owners?
- If you were the son of the man who saved this money, would you give the one who found the money a reward?
- Do you find that you have an affection for money?
I think I would make an attempt to find the true owners of the money if I could. Of course in a situation like this where no one but the deceased knows about the money, the temptation would be all that much greater. I think the verse you mention, however, really lays the point out for us all.
If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.
The desire for money and things can lead us to do things we shouldn’t, and lead us to ruin and destruction. We need to cognizant of that.
On the other hand, some sort of reward from the family would be a nice thing as well, the person who found it could easily have just kept the money and never said a word about it..
Keep it…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Hidden_Treasure
I don’t think there is a wrong answer to the question.
Give it back to the previous owners? You’ve done a good deed to someone.
Keep it for yourself? You’ve done nothing wrong, unethical, or worthy of any sort of condemnation whatsoever.
My thought would be to split it. We found this money in ‘our’ house. As an act of kindness and generosity we would like to split the money between the two of us.
You *bought* the house. You weren’t in the house while it was being shown and then hid the money away in your jacket and stole it. I agree with James. Jesus had no condemnation for the man who bought the field to get the treasure.
Do with the money what you wish. God gave it to you. There isn’t a right or wrong answer here unless you spend the money on some evil purpose.
A couple interesting perspectives in the comments. I would probably have done what Mr. Ferrin did, although it is probably his since any real estate contract would include all improvements to the land. Makes for an interesting legal discussion. As the son of the original owner, why didn’t he go into the attic? Surely all the belongings would have had something done with them as part of the estate. I would give the guy a reward for finding it since I had messed up so badly by not searching my father’s house.
I’m pretty sure we would have kept it. I would have seen it as an awesome blessing from God, thanked him profusely for it, tithed 10% and then put the rest toward the mortgage. I’m not sure the thought of giving it back to the family of the person we bought it from would have crossed my mind. Since it was a home that they owned and purchased it means the money was theirs to keep.
What a pleasure it is to read stories where individuals actually do the honorable and correct thing. Yes, I would have given the money to the children of the owner.
I think the interesting thing about this is that we think that since we found it we should give it back. This wasn’t money he found on the street where there was an owner that lost it, he actually bought the money when he bought the house. In this case the owners may have lost it so to speak because they didn’t know about it, but in this case they legally sold it. It was a nice gesture to give the money to the kids, but I don’t think he deserves any recognition for doing the right thing – a nice thing sure.
The right thing in this case is whatever he wanted to do. If the people would have left a lamp he wouldn’t have given that back, as a matter of fact, I wounder if there was anything else in the attic that he didn’t give back. The only reason we are talking about this is because of the value. I personally don’t know not being in the situation, but I sure think I would use most of it to pay down the mortgage and to tithe.
I can understand the view to keep the money, however, it is wrong to use the parable of the hidden treasure as a justification. That parable was told to emphasize both the hidden and valuable nature of salvation. It isn’t good method of biblical interpretation to take one of the lesser details in a parable and try to make an application out of it.
This is similar to Rahab being dishonest, but God still commending her faith (Hebrews 11:31). Since the point of the verse is to display her faith, her dishonestly isn’t dealt with at all. But that doesn’t mean it was commended, either.
I think it would be wise for all of us to look at this event and consider what God’s will would be for us as believers. We shouldn’t focus so much on whether it would have been legal for him to keep the money, but whether it would have been a moral thing to do.
Personally, I would have felt a strong conviction to return the money; but another believer may not have. No matter what our stance is on this issue, we need to evaluate all of our actions through the lens of God’s word (especially 1 Corinthians 10:31).
I appreciate everyone’s comments and feedback.
Last week, I moved into a charming little Cape Cod house we bought in the Chicago neighborhood of Dunning.
While moving the former owner’s mattress, I found $23000.
I also had people say, “Ya know, it was perfectly legal for you to keep that.”
Yes, I know. We bought the house and all contents therein, according to the contract.
Legal, yes.
Ethical? Moral? No.
Things which are legal are not necessarily (nor often) moral.
This man’s perfect and eloquent way of telling his story warmed my heart and confirmed that I did the right thing.