Should people hand back money they are wrongly given, and in your experience, do they?

Damnit. I know every time I answer one of these, my chances at wearing a halo get slimmer.

My first money lesson was: “Find a penny, pick it up, then all day you’ll have good luck.”

If I was handed too much change at the sandwich shop checkout? I’m not sure I’d notice half the time. I probably wouldn’t notice getting overcharged either.

I know what I’m supposed to say is: “If you find money, you take it to the cop shop.” Thppppt! For $5, I wouldn’t. I don’t think anyone would. Five bucks is the 2012 version of a penny. But if I saw a person drop it, I’d chase them and hand it back to them.

It’s a matter of degree. Most people would have their moral dilemma somewhere between $20 and $1000 to $2000. Less than $20, you’d pocket it. Over $2000, I think most people would hand it in. What’s your price?

Find $10,000-plus in a dodgy car park and it’s probably the mob’s. I like my teeth and my knees in working order. I saw nothing!

But if $10 million landed in my bank account? Bugger. I reckon I could stop working for $10 million. Or I could be tempted to do a runner (to be caught later with a ferret-looking wig on my head) to a country with no extradition treaty.

Alas, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. And there’d be no point. Modern communications and electronic tracking means you’d clearly have to be smarter than Tony Mokbel to stay on the run for long.

Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting.