Did you realize this before or after you left the establishment?

I could see more of an arguement if you had to go out of your way to take it back. If you realized why you were there I would hope that you had given it back.

If you're asking this to see if you should take it back now that you have realized I believe that you're having doubts of keeping it. If that is the case, take it back.

Bollocks to them - I'm keeping the cash.

I've had enough problems with stores refusing me refunds for the most ridiculous of reasons and with me struggling to recover my funds when I've been overcharged to be overly bothered when one of these sharks accidentally gives me money.

Swings and roundabouts, as they say......

Give it back.

You'd certainly point it out if the error was the other way around right? For me it's the principle of do unto others, if I want people/corporations/the government to be honest to me I must be honest to them. There are too many little cheaters around, I don't want to add to them.

I would totaly give it back, even if I had driven all the way home before realizing it, anyone who could easily give the money back and wouldn't just has no moral.

It shouldn't matter if it was 40 cents, $40, or $4K - either you're an honest person or you're not. If you are, give it back; if not, then keep it.

If i had noticed, i would of given it back, and i say "if i had noticed" because for some reason i dont check my change.

Dunno, I always feel odd in situations like this, ok I should give it back but if I walk away with say $40 missing from my change, realise this and walk back the company says... "Did you check your change before you left?". So it should apply both ways, if they give me the wrong change and its negative (ie: less money than it should be) then its my job to correct them then and there, if its positive then its their job to correct me or ask me if they gave me too much (at which point you say as lying about it seems rather silly...).

I probably would have driven off with it... I rarely check change exactly, as long as the rough number of notes/coins and colours/sizes are right then I will head off, made some lost some that way but it all evens out I guess.

Definitely give it back. Just like a lot of the other threads say, they would have to take it out of their pay to balance the register. I don't sit there and count my change, but glance at it to make sure it's at least the right dollar amount. Couldn't care about the coin change. I wouldn't feel right taking money from someone who makes minimum wage.

This guy with his family went to buy $6 of icecream with a $1 and a $50. By the time I got out the $45 change he already split. He thought he payed with a 1 and a 5. I had to run out the store and catch him before he left to give him his money back.

And one time, I went to eat at a mexican restaraunt with some friends. Before I was out the door my dad asked where I was going and if I needed any money to eat. I told him not really, but he handed me a bill anyway, and I pocketed it. When I went to pay for $5 of food, the guy tried to give me change for a $20, and I insisted he counted wrong, and he insisted I counted wrong. I was pretty sure I handed him a $5 and left it at that. As I ate, I thought about how... I never actually looked at that bill. I called my dad from a payphone, and asked him what he gave me, and he said it was a $20. So I told the cashier that I made a mistake, and he gave me full change.

Long story short, what goes around comes around, and it works both ways.

If your children are starving, then brother keep it and feed then.

If not - just give it back. Only God knows the real story. That's about the only time I'd say to use it for food for someone truly needy. Personally, I would have just given it back and then felt better that I did the right thing. (I always do)...Otherwise, my guilt complex is big enough for a whole gigantic lot less.

At Starbucks you're fired if your register is off by more than $5.00. I'm guessing it's not too different anywhere else.

Please give it back.

Damn, $40 will definitely get you fired, whether or not you pay for it. I'd give it back.

I'd have kept it.
If someone doesn't want to get fired because the takings don't add up, they should make sure they give people the right change.

I would give it back. Bad Karma ya know. However, I hate those cash registers that automatically dispense the change so that the cashier doesn't have to count it.

Nope. Give it back.

It's a pretty sorry state of affairs when, "Should I do the right thing or the wrong thing?" counts as a Moral Dilemma.

I've done both options over the years and I can tell you the glee and gloating you get from taking the money doesn't beat the good feeling you get from giving it back.
Point out the mistake, give back the cash...it's all about karma people...you'll sleep better at night...give it a try.

You have got to give it back. I worked retail for a while and the cleark has to make his or her till match the receipts or they make up the difference out of their check. Loosing a days pay could be really vital to that persons livelyhood. Give it back.

I don't care if it was a dime or $500, you should give it back because its the right thing to do. I worked as a manager in a fast food joint when I was in highschool and if somebody was that short on their till at the end of the day, they would be fired out-right.

Give it back.

One time I bought two items, but I was only charged for one. I pointed this out to the cashier with the intent to pay for the second item, but she told me to "just go." I think she said that because her manager was approaching the register and she wanted to avoid the embarrassment.

When I was 16 I delivered pizzas for about a year.

I live in Wisconsin, and we can have some really nasty snowstorm/blizzards during the winter. It was during one of these snowstorms that I was supposed to deliver several pizzas to this lady in an apartment. Since the driving conditions were terrible, we were naturally busy. It took almost an hour and a half to get her the pizza she had ordered, but we were telling customers that it would likely be 2 hours before they got their order simply because the roads were so bad...

When I finally get there, she's really pissed off because it took so long to get her her food. She ripped the boxes out of my hands and basically said that there was no way she was paying over $20.00 for the six pizzas due to the delay. I apologized for the delay, but told her that in order to keep the food she would have to pay the full price, which was somewhere around $56.00. She set the pizzas aside, grabbed her purse, and angrily opened her wallet, again saying that there was no way she was going to pay that much with the delay. She crumpled up a bill and threw it at me, and then slammed the door in my face. I reached down, opened the crinkled money, and saw that it was only ten bucks. Becuase I carried my till on me, the missing money was going to come basically out of my pocket. Then, I saw a hundred dollar bill that was quickly being covered with snow with the corner of it wedged in between the door and it's frame. I pulled it out, not sure if I should mention it or not. My conscience got the best of me, and I knocked on her door again. She pulled aside the curtain, gave me the finger, and returned the curtain to where it was.

I walked away with over a $50.00 tip, and right or wrong, I have no qualms about it :D

I do hope that she forever thinks that she accidentally threw it at you... thinking that she must have thrown a $10... but no I don't have that $100...

I've gotten ripped off at McDonalds so much, either getting the wrong thing, or not getting something I ordered, that I would have kept the money. It would have sort of balanced everything out.

I'd keep it. Call me a bad person or something. If life wants to tuck some extra money into my pocket, then so be it. I've had the situation reversed, where I was severely underchanged, and the involved retail establishment made no effort to correct their mistake. I would drive away with a smile on my face and a hamburger in my hand. In life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, unless you give back your wins, and then you just lose ;)

Blingbling asks if my integrity is worth $40. My response to that is, "is a sense of moral righteousness worth paying $40 for?"

Always pay back. I never knew they had to pay the difference...

For people working minimum wage jobs, that could be a lot of money.

Maybe you should start checking your change a bit more often?...just a thought.
As smug as you would feel keeping the money, you would feel better giving the money back. Maybe not today, but life is more than today.
What goes around comes around. ;)

Give it back. No question about it. It happened a few weeks ago at my local Target. I felt much better later that night. I'm always hard up for money, but my integrity is worth more than a few bucks. I thought about it more that night and was very glad I did give it back. It would have been one of those things that nags at my conscience.

Karma, do what you want done by others to yourself...

Nobody in the US ever has to make up for a short till. It's illegal to make them do it, it's illegal to allow them to do it. They just get fired.

Don't waiter people have to make up for people who bailed on checks?

I know my retail years, we were not allowed to make up for short tills -- if our tills were short, by more than 10dollars, we'd have to report it to the district office- -we weren't above throwing in some cash to make it 9.95 so it wouldn't be short and we didn't have to report it to the office.

Ok, I know the correct answer, and because it's so much money I would also give it back, though if it were $2-3 I might just keep it. But think about this...how many times have you driven through McDonald's or some other fast food place and not gotten your complete order? Do you ever just keep driving instead of going back? They made money off you. Nobody got fired for messing up your order, even if it might've ruined your entire night because you were looking forward to your chicken-like tenders.
Also, in the past two weeks, I've been shortchanged twice when getting cash back from my debit card. The first time happened to be at McDonalds. I asked for cash back, got my food, then my card, but not the cash. I didn't realize it until a couple days later, and by then I figured it was too late. Was the cashier hanging onto that 10 dollar bill or did she pocket it and say, "Thanks, sucker!". The second time I caught it before I left the store, but it's not an uncommon occurence.
Anyway, these are just some thoughts...I might be wrong.
(edit: didn't see page 2 and that Empty One said pretty much the same thing as my first paragraph)
(edit2: I don't know about state/national laws, but at the retails store I manage you would never have to make up for a short-changed drawer. You might draw suspicion if it were to happen with some regularity, but it's definitely not a give that every retail store forces you to make up the difference)

The bank once made a mistake in my bank account giving me an extra 1000 dollars in my account. Of course I was shocked and was debating just closing out my accounts and hoping they wouldn't catch on. But in the end I called and had them fix it, because I needed to find out how much I really had in my account. That 1000 dollars could have gone a long way... If I were in your shoes I would have given back the money, just because I know the pain of a drawer being short. Once by a computer error, my drawer came up 600 dollars short, it was a bitch to prove that it wasn't my fault. Luckily I was able to prove it.