Should Honesty Be Rewarded?

[termite]

I understand what you're saying Tim but honesty should be lauded and it should be a good example to others and if that means getting an award then surely that can't be a bad thing right?

Sorta OT but similar.

I had an incident a couple of years ago where I withdrew $100 from an ATM and when I reached down to take the money there was a bundle of notes all blocked up in the slot. I was worried I wouldn't get my cash so I sort of fiddled around with the cash until it pulled free and out came not just my $100 but another $370.

The bank was closed and I was on my way to work (6am) and couldn't do much else so I just went to work. At 9am I rang the bank and told my story to an employee and said I wanted to hand the money in. What happened next was bizarre, I was shuffled through half a dozen different bank employees and each one said more or less the same thing "Why are you giving it back? We don't have a way of taking it back. We don't know what to do!"

I was giving it back because:
a) It wasn't mine.
b) I was damn sure it belonged to some poor bastard that withdrew the cash and never received it and thought he/she would also be calling the bank any minute.
c) I was pretty sure there was a camera at the ATM and it would have seen me struggling to pull out my cash only to end up with a bundle.

Anyway I had to go into a different bank branch to hand the money over, it was a nightmare that took over an hour of my time and required the signing of statutory declarations and all sorts of crap. The bank said it had never happened - nobody had ever handed them money under these circumstances before so they simply didn't have a process. Apparently the money didn't technically belong to the bank, it belonged to CHUBB security because they run the ATM's and CHUBB also didn't know what to do with the money.

I don't recall anyone even thanking me, mostly I was just causing problems for them by being an honest, law abiding citizen...