early morning ethical dilemma.

i was running late to begin with. my morning routine has slowly gotten out of hand, which is just another one of the pros on getting magic straight. my morning playlist was blaring, and i was walking on autopilot to my subway stop. as i was crossing the street, i stepped over a pile of leaves that had gathered in a gutter. it was only about 20 seconds later, when i was already more than half a block away that i realized a $5 bill had been half buried in the pile of leaves. hmm… i wasn’t going to turn back to reassess the situation, since i was way late for work. but then i thought - what if it had been a $50? i think then i may have gone back to see if i could locate someone who had dropped it. but what if i couldn’t? then i’m standing on the street holding someone else’s $50. i would feel really bad about keeping it. it would be like bad karma just parking itself in my pocket. ok, but what if it had been just $1? it seems like $1 is up for grabs. it’s like finding a lucky penny on the sidewalk. but $5? that’s almost money. in the end, i probably don’t need someone else’s $5. i could check back on the pile of leaves later tonight to see if it’s been claimed (sidenote: have my evenings really been reduced to checking for lost money in piles of leaves in the street??). otherwise, i’ll find a nice homeless person who looks like they could use $5.