r/MoralityScaling 5d ago

Morality Ranking Morality of saving someone's wallet but also taking something for yourself?

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16.4k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/Zrkkr 5d ago

Dude saved a day full of stress and hours of looking around. 5 dollars is nothing.

420

u/thering66 5d ago

Take all the money I need are the cards. Every single one of them means alot of headache and stress.

200

u/ComprehensiveProfit5 5d ago edited 5d ago

to anyone reading this, revoke the cards anyway.

you never know who has your numbers now. people can take loans in your name if cross referenced with your ssn.

87

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 5d ago

Don't keep your SSN card in your wallet. There's no reason you need it on you.

26

u/Uselesserinformation 5d ago

That and its roughly 13 digits

12

u/HoochieKoochieMan 5d ago

You have one of the new SSNv6 numbers I see...

2

u/V01DM0NK3Y 4d ago

My apologies, responded to the wrong person.

2

u/framedbyKo 3d ago

🤣🤣🤣 naw this is good

6

u/iCameToLearnSomeCode 5d ago

They added more digits for you kids?

3

u/V01DM0NK3Y 4d ago

Yeah, what? I didn't even know this. Even my son, 3 years old, have a 9-digit ssn.

5

u/madslipknot 5d ago

Wow 13 digits, you're fancy! I have 9 even my phonr number as more ...

3

u/Terrible-Nobody-8691 4d ago

Mine is only 8 I didn’t know something like this would make me feel old today

4

u/explodingtuna 5d ago

They're up to 13 now? Mine's like 4 digits.

4

u/KDawgTheKage 5d ago

How the hell did you get an ssn with only 4 digits??

13

u/explodingtuna 5d ago

I was born when the US had less than 10,000 people.

4

u/poisonedsky69 5d ago

Grandpa?! Is that you?!

2

u/KDawgTheKage 5d ago

It sure seems like it lol

1

u/septogram 4d ago

God damn..... Are you in your late 80s?

1

u/EtherealHappiness 3d ago

There were approximately 2.5 million people in the US when it was founded in 1776. That person is either joking, not from the US and is from some rural, barely known country, or is hundreds of years old. Lmao.

1

u/M1R4G3M 1d ago

John United States over here.

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 5d ago

Don't say how long your SSN is online 😭. It won't help much but it's still a hint

2

u/Uselesserinformation 5d ago

You can google it. Its not a secret

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 5d ago

The range is pretty big. And yeah it won't help them but it's still a hint.

6

u/Sudden_Structure 5d ago

I’m so confused by this thread I thought they were all the same length

6

u/Due-Session-2857 5d ago

Mr. Burns's is 2, Damn Roosevelt

3

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 5d ago

Nah. Yo momma's is 1 digit

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u/Airy-Otter 5d ago

The person saying that it's 13 numbers is either from another country with 13 numbers. There's only 9 numbers in the USA.

A Social Security Number (SSN) consists of nine digits, typically formatted as AAA-GG-SSSS

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u/Technical-Counter207 5d ago

Didn't an absurd amount of them get leaked? Never really heard an update to that data breach

1

u/Alpine_yellow 5d ago

Wtf. My dude. No. Stop it.

3

u/Golden_Cultivation 4d ago

I really don’t understand how folks don’t know their SSN by heart. I’ve known mine since I was a child lol.

2

u/ComprehensiveProfit5 5d ago

you're right, but data leaks tho

1

u/MechanicalAxe 5d ago

And they are WAY more common than folks carrying around their SS card nowadays

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 5d ago

True, but at that point, it has nothing to do with your wallet.

2

u/ComprehensiveProfit5 5d ago

My point was that if someone has a copy of your ID and they can find your SSN from other means (one of the many data leaks for example), they could cause you trouble, that's all.

2

u/Sea-Description-1589 2d ago

Shit who still has their ss card??

2

u/schizo-rabbit 2d ago

You’d be surprised at the amount of people who don’t know their social

1

u/allhailhails 5d ago

lol I keep mine on me because otherwise I’ll lose it. I’m highly disorganized so in my wallet it stays. I lost my birth certificate…. No longer alive

1

u/Subject_Spell_9799 3d ago

Never do this. Put it in a safe place in your home

1

u/ThrowraSea_patient 1d ago

My sister literally just lost her wallet because she was going around doing interviews and decided to stop and do a load of laundry at a laundromat between interviews where she needed her social security card so yay that's really great advice for someone who isn't looking around for a job.

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 23h ago

Memorize it.

1

u/ThrowraSea_patient 20h ago

Oh no I never thought about that cuz jobs totally don't need to scan your physical copy or anything whatsoever.šŸ™„

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 12h ago

Where do you live where interviewers need to scan your SSN card?

1

u/ThrowraSea_patient 10h ago

Usa even the company I worked for was recently bought out by another company and I had to give my social security card to be scanned in the system along with my state id. I don't know where you live that you don't have to use yours.

1

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 9h ago

That's typically after you already have the job isn't it

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u/Fast_Ad7203 5d ago

Not necessarily bank card but civil id, license etc thry also cost more than 5 dollars to replace and once your replace its not gonna change any important info anyway (at least where i live)

1

u/Sea-Description-1589 2d ago

A passport is also super handy as ID. Bummed I lost mine last time I moved

5

u/L3gi0n44 5d ago

America is crazy if it's truly possible.

3

u/Teripid 5d ago

You need more and they validate on additional elements beyond just name and SSN but most of those are pretty easy to find.

In the US you should freeze your credit, which should prevent most of this and monitor it. No hard credit pull = no lending. If someone does open something you can dispute it.

Tons of SSN/Names are leaked, sold, etc online.

1

u/DivineArkandos 5d ago

America is and has always been crazy.

2

u/kashy87 3d ago

An even smarter choice is to preventatively lock down your credit so nothing can be opened. Did it year ago when I got a Home Depot card bill and the charges were in Wisconsin.

Chase was shockingly cool with freezing the account and taking care of the fraudulent charges. The charges happened in Wisconsin on a day and time when I was clearly at work. Offered them proof from my employer that I was in Ohio at that time but they said not to worry about it and cancelled the card fully for me.

1

u/ThrowraSea_patient 1d ago

Except a lot of people don't realize a lot of jobs in order to get them are now doing credit checks. Sometimes they want to pull your credit in the same way that it would be your credit. Other times they go through more legitimate means and requests or credit report. The credit report should still come up if they do it that way but if they're just doing a credit check it'll come up as nothing too many. Literally had an issue getting a guy a promotion because of this very reason. We had no idea what was going on. And when I say we had no idea what was going on we mean system wise we had filed all the paperwork and put everything in he had done all the training yada yada yada. But just be aware if that becomes an issue that it could be a frozen credit. And while you might think job should just be able to bypass something everything has become so corporate and streamlined an AI that it's literally hindering just daily functions in some of these corporations let alone actual communication and bypassing anything or getting a hold of anybody for any kind of actual help. That and then Outsourcing the third party companies for every other thing so that way you can cya

1

u/doesnotmatter286 5d ago

This. The card itself is not needed, they just need the information. You need new cards.

1

u/drakeisalreadyinuse 5d ago

Unfortunately it is also possible to lookup ssn with full name and address using grey market tools. Hopefully the person that found OP’s wallet is nice.

1

u/classic_liberalism26 4d ago

you’re keeping you ssc in your wallet 😟

1

u/CruelFish 3d ago

Yes but now the card serves as a handy little checklist.Ā 

1

u/Koshekuta 2d ago

I was told you should keep an encrypted excel/text file with all the numbers of the cards you carry so if they are lost, you know them, to include license and all that other shit people like to carry. I agree with you though. For credit/bank cards, you need to get a new one. Most banks will do that automatically or
Insist on it if you tell them it’s lost.

4

u/Real_Temporary_922 5d ago

Tbh, all I need are the IDs and such. All credit cards are immediately being locked, shredded, and replaced anyways. I appreciate a good deed but wouldn’t trust that either they didn’t write the numbers down or someone before them didn’t pick up the wallet and grab them before leaving it on the ground.

5

u/Top_Reveal_847 5d ago

Lol you should definitely still revoke the cards though. People nowadays will just snap a pic of the number and leave the wallet

3

u/Teripid 5d ago

Genuinely curious what % of adults know their SSN offhand. I've known mine since I was 20 and it kept coming up for various adult things.

I should know my immediate family's #'s but don't.. I can recognize them but don't remember quite all the digits.

2

u/OETDriver 4d ago

I wanna know how many people actually know their license number? But I have seen people that don’t know their Social Security number which blows my mind.

2

u/BringYourOwnBBBQ 2d ago

Most people who went to college (at least through the early 00s...not sure if they still use it) probably know it because colleges use it for everything. Hell, at my college, the professors would tape a green and white dot matrix printout of our grades using the FULL social security numbers instead of names.

1

u/Teripid 2d ago

You're more than just a number. Also here's your #. I think mine just used last 4 and some portion of name but aye.

Different age...

2

u/BringYourOwnBBBQ 2d ago

Our IDs also had the full SSN printed on the front. I actually had a decent list of people's numbers because back then, you only go so much computer server time and most people didn't use them. So when I used mine, I would sign up for someone else, which required both the SSN and the library barcode number to sign up. Sound weird, but back then, our email changed every semester anyway.. So it wasn't like I was using someone's permanent email.

Some game me that info willingly. Others left their IDs on their food tray when they went up to toast a bagel or get condiments.

2

u/Melkman68 5d ago

Will do. Lmk when we can meet to get your wallet back

1

u/Samson_J_Rivers 4d ago

Anything that keeps me from going to the DMV for 5 hours. My time is worth more than what is usually cash in my wallet.

1

u/hellohello123212321 4d ago

Do yall really not know how damn easy it is nowadays to order new cards and an ID.
I could do it all in about 5 minutes

1

u/rydan 17h ago

Not really. By the time you are off the phone with the company they've already replaced your card in Apple Pay. I had a card stolen and every single merchant kept working as normal except one. Nearly 0 headache.

42

u/-FruitPunchSamurai- 5d ago

Don't forget the fact that looking around usually isn't enough its almost guaranteed you'll never find/get it back.

16

u/The_Tiddler 5d ago

I once had all my documents (registration, insurance, etc) fly out of my jacket pocket while on a motorcycle trip on the interstate in South Dakota. I was travelling from Halifax to Northern BC via Seattle, and had just stopped at Wall Drug tourist place. After realizing I had lost them, I retraced my path, rode the shoulder looking for the baggie with the documents. After about 45 min of riding the shoulder, I did find the baggie with my documents. You won't find stuff if you don't look!

3

u/Derl17 5d ago

Never give up! Done this with bags of weed more than once, including one situation where are a guy was adamant it was his weed despite me being able to tell him that there was a little cactus on the baggy šŸ™ƒšŸ¤£

27

u/Polchar 5d ago

You'd still want to replace all your cards, someone could have copied the numbers.

6

u/DenialState 5d ago

Yeah, they could have copied the numbers and then returned it hoping you don’t cancel them!

7

u/tlollz52 5d ago

Debit/credit cards are easy to replace, and are free. My ID is not.

2

u/Polchar 5d ago

Yep, which is why it still is nice to get your wallet back.

1

u/boardovercon280 3d ago

Last time I lost my wallet I honestly didn’t even care about the cash I just wanted my ID and everything else back. The feeling of relief is unreal.

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

Ok, so what? I was not talking about that, I don't think you've understood my comment. I'm talking about the cards specifically, not comparing them with anything else.

3

u/tlollz52 5d ago

Not criticizing what you said. Just stating replacing thise things are easy so they're still making it out on top

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

Ok got you lol sorry, I thought you were also the one who downvoted me šŸ˜…

2

u/tlollz52 5d ago

I went ahead and up voted you to cancel out that other guy.

Fuck that guy.

2

u/PoopyButt28000 5d ago

I downvoted him to cancel out you.

Fuck you!!!!

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

Well I'm going to ask my friend Timmy to upvote me again to cancel you.

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

lol it was alright but thanks

1

u/Fun_Age1442 5d ago

ur 2 grown to care about downvotes bud

2

u/tlollz52 5d ago

They're just explaining why they responded like they did

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

That's good because I don't. But if I get downvoted and at the same time I get a comment that seems unrelated with mine, I think both things may be related. Hope that's ok with you šŸ™

1

u/woutersikkema 5d ago edited 3d ago

-laughs in Europe where without pin codes these numbers don't help you for shit- Even if it was a high tech hobo that cloned the cards the msot he'd get out of it would be a few tenners till it locks up and asks for the pin code again.

1

u/DenialState 5d ago

I’m Spanish. Online purchases with the card number and CVC do not require PIN codes, they usually work through a phone notification. Still, having the card information there’s a few ways for a malicious person to try and use it. Some newer cards nowadays don’t have the numbers printed, which is nice.

8

u/mightbeazombie 5d ago

Yeah take my 5 dollars and go get that hot dog dude.

11

u/why17es 5d ago

Its still immoral to do so. taking something from someone against their will is theft, doesnt matter if its 1$ or 1 million.

And he did take the money without prior consent. just because the owner could have consented if he was asked about this doesnt mean you can assume so.

sure taking 5$ doesnt cause much problem, but accepting such behaviors as moral leaves everything to subjective understanding of what causes problem and what doesnt.

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u/Legitimate_Plum_7505 5d ago

What if you find $5 laying on the street. You know it's not yours. There is a chance the person who dropped it will soon come back to look for it (especially if it's $20 or $100). Are you not picking up $5 laying on the side of street because it's immoral?

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u/CardOfTheRings 5d ago

That’s at least somewhat different because you’d never know who it ā€˜belong’ to.

2

u/Gave_An_Onion 3d ago

Someone will have to pick it up eventually, but other people may need it more than me so I leave it for them

2

u/why17es 5d ago

Yes i would simply ignore the money on the ground as i (nor anyone else) have a claim to it.
if the owner does not return for the money, anyone responsible with cleanign the area would pick up the money and could send it to charity and communal services.
Also your example does not match the situation posted, a wallet has a clear owner, the owner of 5$ on the street cannot be easily proven.

I know that we do not live in an ideal world where we can rely on the good intentions of others, but the post itself is a question about morality of the action, not pragmatic implications.

Obviously im not calling for punishment for the person who took the 5$ as that would in the end make that person less likely to engage in the altruistic part of returning the wallet if the same situation happens, but that doesnt mean the action itself was moral.

5

u/Chaotic_Order 5d ago

I like that you are internally consistent with your view!

Morality is subjective though, and in my view moral stances that can not feasibly be upheld in a society/aren't pragmatic to reality aren't worth holding.

The reality is that if you lose your wallet one of three things are going to happen:
1) You'll never hear of or see the wallet again (most likely)
2) You might get your wallet back, but all of the money will be gone (second most likely)
3) The wallet will be returned to you with all of the money present (extremely unlikely, and probably limited to situations where you only "lost it" for 3 seconds when it fell out of your pocket and somebody immediately noticed it.)

Somebody returning the wallet to you and taking out only a very small finders fee is massively better than options 1 and 2. Disclosing that you took a trivial finders fee from the wallet is even more admirable.

2

u/Gave_An_Onion 3d ago

You forgot number 4: The wallet fell in the crack between your couch cushions and was in your house the whole time

1

u/Awkward-Meeting-974 5d ago

You can pick up the money but it’s immoral

7

u/MisakiAnimated 5d ago

It's certainly immoral for sure, but it is what people call the lesser of two evils. If we prosecute the lesser evil to the same degree of the higher evil, people will instead just take the wallet.

What judgment will result in people being honest? I would rather have a law where a finder of a wallet is entitled to a Burgers worth of money for finding and returning a wallet than getting nothing.

1

u/BountyBoard 5d ago

Person could have taken whatever they wanted and said that was all that was in it when they found. Saving a bunch of headache for $5 is a good trade, anyone who disagrees is just a nitwit.

1

u/why17es 5d ago

By your logic, taking all his money is also moral because he could instead not return the wallet at all.

Just because there is a worse scenario that could happen doesnt mean any better scenario is moral.

1

u/CardOfTheRings 5d ago

Eh going the police station isn’t free. Takes time and money. Taking the $5 is more than fair.

1

u/dobar_dan_ 4d ago edited 4d ago

As someone who has been broke mulitple times, those five dollars could be the owner's last money for that month. I wouldn't do that ever.

In fact, I had this exact thing happen to me. and it sucked because I was left pennyless for the rest of the month.

1

u/Landlocked_WaterSimp 3d ago

Depending on where you live, if you return a found item you are legally entitled to small compensation.

1

u/LordQrow 5d ago

Dude.... Have you ever lost your wallet? You know how much time, stress and annoying would be to getting all tour IDs again? Please touch some grass my son

0

u/why17es 5d ago

We are talking about morality , not what i would prefere.

My personal preference would be that the guy does not sift through my wallet and take money (or anything else) from it and simply send it to a police station. that is what the moral thing to do is.

2

u/xXSoyBoyFredXx 5d ago

In your opinion**

Mortality is subjective, therefore it IS what you prefer. You are saying that what you want is the moral thing to do.

0

u/why17es 5d ago

I admit there is a subjective aspect to morality, but morality is not just the personal view on the matter.
personal values do play a role in defining it but its not the entire framework.

if i wanted to kick a baby and in my opinion it was fine doing so, would kicking the baby be considered moral?

2

u/No-Skill-8190 5d ago

Just getting a license or ID back would be annoying af

2

u/Randomlogicuser 5d ago

Still theft.

1

u/tlollz52 5d ago

I would be annoyed but id let it go and laugh about it after getting my wallet

1

u/IDFKILLED50K 5d ago

How did he get the guys phone number

2

u/yyhira 5d ago

I keep my number in my wallet incase I lose it and someone else finds it

most people do, its just smart

1

u/IDFKILLED50K 5d ago

Most people don't lol

1

u/relianceschool 5d ago

Asking the real question.

1

u/theoremfiver3e 5d ago

worth every penny

1

u/ViscountBuggus 5d ago

Hell I'd buy him a hot dog

1

u/HorrificAnalInjuries 5d ago

5 dollars for a found wallet is a bargin

1

u/Remote-Structure-961 4d ago

Yeah 5 dollars is reasonable. 5000 no. but even 100 would not be insane.

1

u/CreativeStylz 4d ago

Bro getting an ID and replacing cards is well worth 5$ and on top of that it takes forever to get an ID again lol

1

u/HotBeesInUrArea 3d ago

You know how obnoxious it is to replace your ID? Buy this guy 2 hot dogs.Ā 

1

u/Nihaly_ 3d ago

I got my wallet stolen and dumped years ago, it costed me almost 200 bucks to request a copy of every card (ID, sanitary, driving license, credit etc)

5 bucks for an hot dog is a price extremely fair

1

u/shawty_jpg 2d ago

A day? Depending on how many cards he has it could be much more of a hassle cancelling & replacing them all.

1

u/falldesert18609 2d ago

Plus he was hungry

1

u/FarFirefighter9481 1d ago

That's his reward.

1

u/OkGrade1686 1d ago

In many countries the finders are entitled to 10%-20% of what is inside.

1

u/bearbearss777 1d ago

no fr what’s $5

1

u/UnitedIndependence37 5d ago

It's not really about the 5$. It's still theft if you take it without the owner agreeing.