While I was at the campus bookstore today, I became part of an interesting situation regarding ethics. Let me explain.
As I was browsing the bargain table, I noticed a box underneath with several Velcro straps designed to hold your right pant leg so it won't get caught in your bike gears and get chewed up. As this has already happened to me, I decided I needed one. So I grabbed one and went off to make my purchases.
After waiting five minutes in line, I arrived at the cash register. My books rang up fine, but when the checker got to my so-called "sport strap," she had a confused look on her face.
"Is this yours?"
Assuming she meant that I may have dropped it on the counter, I said, "No." But realizing she might have thinking someone else left it, I added, "Not yet, at least."
So she then went to look up the price in their little laminated book of bar codes. But alas, it wasn't there. She then had to ask her boss what to do. The conclusion was to take the band over to the supplies check out stand and ask them.
When she returned, she announced that they didn't know they had it either.
Pause.This thing is obviously not in their inventory. Nobody would miss it if I just took it. But that's just not the point.
Unpause."Somebody probably lost it, so I can't just give it to you. You can take it over to Lost and Found and see what they say."
Someone did not lose it. My retort: "How about I just go back there, pick up another one, put it in my pocket, and walk away?"
Now this surprised her. It was clear they were intended for selling, but nobody had any record of the bookstore owning this product. So what's to stop me from just taking it? The fact that I did the good thing and told them about it.
The story goes on for quite some time. They decide they can't just let me take it and decide to make up a price. But first she has to go try and find the others for a code. She does eventually, then rings everything up. But I noticed the code was for a 7 pack and I was obviously not buying 7. So she had to calculate 7.95/7 (I guessed $1.15; it was $1.14), redo my order, then finally letting me on my way.
My point is that after half an hour standing at the cash register, I still had to pay some arbitrary amount for the stupid thing they didn't even know they had. It was a pure waste of my time, and aside from a couple apologies, they gave me nothing. I had to sit there enduring the whole thing.
The time spent was not a big issue to me personally, as I rarely do anything useful in my free time anyway. But I had to stand there the entire time, watching the line get longer and longer, knowing full well that I was taking up more than one checking stand, as the checkers had to confer between each other. I know how aggravating waiting in lines is, so this bothered me more than anything else.
Now what if I had simply put the strap in my pocket? They had no record or idea it was theirs, so I couldn't be caught for stealing. I could have even claimed it was mine when she first asked about it. But I was being a good person and in the end had to pay, both in the sense of money and time.
So now the question of ethics comes into play. What was the right thing to do?
