Ethical dilemmas ... and not

On Antiques Road Show, there's almost always that story. You know the one: somebody found something at a yard sale and paid $10 for it (or maybe a couple of hundred), and then it turns out to be worth thousands. I'm never entirely sure how I feel about that story - and the cleverer the buyer was (I just knew it was valuable), the less I like them. But at least the seller had a chance.

Because sometimes there's this other story: the buyer forces open the little box and sees something inside the seller obviously didn't know was there. $25 for the pretty tin box ... with a piece of jewelry or a miniature inside. That's not clever. That's sneaky.

And then you read about the person who gets too much money back in change. Like the Ask Amy writer who was justifying keeping the extra $200 because the clerk should have been paying attention. Amy told her to take it back. And somebody wrote in protesting that, saying "the clerk would never know." Well, you know what? The clerk would know. Her drawer would be short, and she'd be on the hook for it. It's not like finding money on the street. That money is taken from a person. (Once a teller forgot to deduct the traveller's check amount from the cash withdrawal. I didn't count the money, just took the envelope. When I got to the grocery store, I saw I had $500 too much. The next day, I saw the most relieved person I've ever seen when I went back to the bank... ) If the teller, or the cashier, short-changed you, you certainly wouldn't think it was okay just because you weren't paying attention to him instead of, say, your kids. Once you've realized you were given too much money you give it back. You don't keep it: that's dishonest.

And then there's this. Kelly Joosten and dozens of drivers ripped off a Citgo station this week for thousands of dollars, and are bragging about it, "proudly showing off" the evidence.

The sign at the Citgo station in Wisconsin Rapids read $3.49 when Kelly pulled her 14mpg Ford Expedition in to fill up. She usually spends over $100 to fill her vehicle. Monday it cost $8.85. We know that, by the way, because Kelly Joosten was interviewed all over the place, and "proudly showed off her receipt" to reporters. It would have cost her $88.25 , so she save $80. The station owner figures some 40 people filled up before he could be called down to shut off the pumps.

Let's say it was 35. Let's say they all "saved" 80 bucks. That's $2800.

Stolen from that Citgo station. Worse, how long will it take him to make up that deficit and start showing a profit again? The station owner makes about 7 or 8 cents a gallon. That's before he pays 3% to the credit card company, since who carries $100 in cash to buy gas? So around a nickel a gallon, and maybe not quite that.

A nickel a gallon. And he has to sell enough gallons to make up a $2800 shortfall. That's fifty-six thousand gallons. That's 2,000 Ford Expeditions with empty tanks. Just to break even.

Yes. Kelly Joosten, you and the "dozens" of motorists who took advantage of that mistake took advantage in worst possible way. You stole money from Mr Raval - not Citgo, as some of you may have said to yourselves as you rationalized it. He already bought and paid for that gas. (I personally wonder who made the mistake, and if it was an attendant if he still has a job.)

The first customer should have said to the clerk, "You know - I didn't buy just a couple of gallons, that's not why my charge is six bucks. Your pump is charging thirty-four cents." Instead, dozens of people pulled up - with gas cans in the back of their cars (which means many of them may have "saved" much more than $80, which means Raval may have to sell much more than 56,000 gallons...). We know they had gas cans: the proud SUV-driving Joosten told us. And that means people not only didn't tell the attendant, they called other people on their cell phones to come on down. (The sign said $3.43, after all.) They stole, by taking what they knew they weren't meant to have, and they abetted theft, by encouraging others to come and do likewise.

And clearly, at least one of them doesn't even begin to think of it like that. All she can see is that she's up $80. Who's down - by thousands - isn't her concern.