Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Last Updated: Thursday, 2 August 2007, 16:28 GMT 17:28 UK


Japan cash windfall creates dilemmas
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo



What would you do if you found a wad of money?
If someone left an envelope with a crisp 10,000 yen ($80) note in it, would you:
A - get on the phone to your favourite restaurant and find out if they have a spare table
B - get down to the bank and deposit it
C - take it down to the nearest policeman and hand it over intact?

If you live in Japan the answer, it would seem, is C.



In recent weeks more than 400 blank envelopes containing 10,000 yen bills have been left in the gents toilets of local council buildings all across Japan.

Also in the envelope were notes asking that the cash be used for "ascetic training".

Then, over the last few days, 18 residents of a Tokyo building found a total of 1.81 million yen ($15,210) stuffed into envelopes in their mailboxes.

People are very, very worried. Put yourself in our shoes. We are very anxious

Resident of Glanz Ober apartment block
This time there was no note telling them what to do with the money.

Half an hour's taxi ride away from the apartments, money was falling out of the sky last week - a million yen floating down from another apartment block above a convenience store.

What is notable about all these events, whether they are connected or not, is the unease they have caused among those lucky enough to find the cash.

And apparently the money has all been handed over to the police.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6927297.stm

[mindmetoo]

A couple weeks ago I was walking along. A woman was walking towards me. She looked down. I looked down to see what she was looking at. When someone on the sidewalks of Seoul looks at something on the ground, you look too. Anyway, it was a 10,000 won bill. She gazed at it and kept walking. I stopped and picked it up. There was no one around except the two of us. I felt like maybe she would have picked it up if I wasn't there. Being a foreigner might have filled her with some shame. So I ran after her and gave her the man won bill. She protested it wasn't hers.

"I know. But no one is around and you saw it first. It should be yours."

She grasped the logic and took it.