Thursday, May 29, 2014

Dilemma of the week - You see someone you don't like drop her wallet.

Today, Thursday, May 29, 2014 the UU Way Of Life online magazine is starting a new feature called Dilemma of the Week. Each week a moral dilemma will be provided and people are invited to comment on their ideas about the best way to handle it. If you would like to submit dilemmas of your own leave them in the comments or send them to davidgmarkham@gmail.com.

Dilemma for this week. A person you don't like, who has been mean to you in the past, and whom you are a little afraid of being hurt by again, drops her wallet. What would you do?

5 comments:

  1. I am embarrassed to say this, but I would probably ignore it, walk the other way, and let someone else "find it." I would have no interest in getting involved with her in any way and it certainly isn't my responsibility to address her loss that I can see.

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  2. Interesting dilemma. I actually have been in this situation, a little different at work, when a co-worker inadvertently made an embarrassing mistake which I could have easily prevented any negative repercussions from if I had pointed it out to him at the time. I regret it now, but I essentially said to myself "screw him. Let's see how he gets himself out of this" because I wanted to see him get into trouble. It is very hard to be generous with someone towards whom you hold resentment. I wish I had been a bigger person, and had overcome my resentment so I would have warned him of the mistake so he wouldn't get into trouble, but I didn't. I have always felt guilty and now that I am older and have thought about this more, I think I would say something to the person so he would have a chance to correct it before getting into trouble.

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  3. What if we change the scenario a little bit and have the person who loses her wallet be an eighth grade mean girl bully who has been picking on your daugher and your daughter asks you what she should do when she noticed this kid drop her wallet out of her purse and it slid under the bleachers in the gym during the basketball game. What would you advise her?

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    Replies
    1. Dear Aaron:

      If it was my daughter I would tell her to ignore it and not say anything. However, I guess the Golden Rule about treating others the way I would like to be treated would say that I should say something because I would like to be told if it was me. The question I guess is what is the cost of doing the right thing and is it worth it?

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  4. I'd take the wallet, spend all the money on booze and women, and the rest I would just waste on cheap crap from Walmart.

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