Treasure in a Sack

A Treasure in the Sack – by Liam Sweeny.

This one is about honesty, and those occasions where an extraordinary display of such honesty has real world consequences. No, it’s not that thing that you said to your aunr last Thanksgiving, but that did take guts, so, honorable mention? No, this is about a bag, left in a Long Island commuter train, and in it, thirty-thousand dollars. Enough money to buy a moderately-appointed used car. You know, inflation really hurts the “oomph” of these missing money stories. If it was like a million, that would be enough for a two-bedroom house in a semi-middle-class neighborhood. Remember when winning a million meant holy sh*t, I’m rich! Yeah, me neither.

So thirty thousand, still nothing to sneeze at, still too much dough to fit in my wallet. So what do the MTA workers do? Do they pocket the cash? Do they hunt high and low for the owner? You probably know the answer, because they palmed it, it would’ve been like “what money?” So yeah, they hunted her down, at an auto mechanic’s shop getting her inspection done. Imagine losing thirty thousand dollars and then having to get a car inspection. Probably not a good day for her.

But I got questions. This story is all about the honesty of the MTA, and that’s great, but what about her? I mean, how do you end up with thirty thousand dollars in a bag on a train? I’m thinking if it was something wholesome, like her son’s school tuition, they would’ve mentioned it in the story. But no word at all on the money. Zero. Zip.

So it brings up the question, do you take it or try to find the owner? I think you find the owner for two reasons. One, it’s the right thing to do. Second, if that money is actually “Big Moe’s” money, you don’t want to be anywhere near it.

Good on you, MTA, whatever your motives.

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