Returning Found Money

One time, my mom took my cousins and me to Six Flags. At the time, I lived in Massachusetts, and they lived in New Jersey. Seeing them was always a major treat. My mom disliked that we spent all our time vegetating in the basement playing video games, so she often encouraged us to go out and do things. This sometimes meant reluctantly bringing us to amusement parks or similar events. My mom is a very intellectual lady who prefers to take us to bookstores, libraries, museums, and cultural events.

However, she understood that sometimes sacrifices had to be made. On this particular day, she brought us to Six Flags, which meant spending the whole day waiting in really long lines for rides. But being with my favorite cousins made it all worthwhile.

While waiting in line for a particular ride in a dark cave, my cousin bent down to tie his shoe and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, I just found $100!” It was quite unexpected to find money in such a dark place.

To our horror, my mom insisted that we take the money to someone working at the theme park. "Someone might be looking for their money," she told us with all the naivety and genuineness in the world. "If nobody claims it, we can come back and get it," she said. Yet, probably two seconds after we were out of sight, the money ended up in the pocket of the laughing employee. My mom is such an earnest, principled person. This memory stands out vividly for me. I cannot believe she made us turn in that money.

I recently recounted this story, probably two decades later, and she couldn't believe she made us do that either. She laughed but acknowledged the hilariously naive aspect of the situation. This memory is probably more unique than if we had just kept the money and spent it on... I don't know, overpriced sugar and nonsense at Six Flags. I'm sure we got plenty of that anyway. Thanks for reading.

This was not the cave where this took place, that cave was actually darker and less “manicured”, but the vibe is similar.