A patient at my job showed me how far I’ve fallen as a person
I work admin at a specialist medical office so any patient interaction usually winds up going to me first and foremost.
Today, a patient came up and told me they found a wad of money in one of our exam rooms and they didn’t know who it belonged to so they wanted to turn it in up front.
I was anticipating a few random dollars.
It was $300 rubber banded together.
I thanked her for her honesty and looked at it for a moment when she left.
I am not in a good spot financially and I haven’t been for a while. I’m having to do gig work on top of the 50 hours a week I work at this job already to take care of my disabled partner. Thankfully my boss was sitting next to me so we sealed it in an envelope and put it away in case someone claims it.
But I think if she wasn’t, I would have pocketed it. As I’ve gotten more and more poor, the things I have done and been willing to do for money have surprised me. It’s not greed. I don’t care about having more than I need. I just care about not even having what I need. I’m amazed that without batting an eye this person turned in money they could have taken with no consequence and arguably no moral obligation to return and they did it without question.
And here I am, honestly just resenting the fact my boss was there so I couldn’t have just taken it. It disgusts me.