Am I daft?

[guest7]

I was decorating a granny flat today. The wife died recently, her husband some years ago. In his room I had to empty his bookcase and I knew that the books were destined for the tip.

Amongst the books was a hardback first edition of Eric Gill's '25 nudes' - a series of engravings.

I could have pocketed the book and nobody would have been any the wiser. The flat (actually a house) is part of a property owned by the son-in-law and the whole lot is probably worth around two million quid, whereas I am poor as a poor thing.

I gave the book to the customer and told him to get it valued. He had no idea who Eric Gill was.

Tonight I found a copy on Amazon (HERE), for $345 

I know I did the right thing, but sometimes I think I'm too honest for my own good.

GC

[002]

You could have pocketed it and paid me !


Jethro

[steveD]

Nothing wrong with that GC. In our line of work where we are entrusted to customers' properties, honesty is of paramount importance. I know I can sleep easily at night!

SteveD

[themoudie]

Honesty pays

[Bill Rutter]

You've done the right thing Graham. A bloke at work "obtained" a mint '96 Toyota estate for £50 and sold it on for ten times that amount. The thing is the old girl he got it from was recently widowed and didn't know the value of the car, which was lovingly looked after by her husband, she just wanted rid.  This "mate" of mine saw the main chance and took advantage. He'll get his just reward, I'm sure of it......bastard!

[Andy M]

Honesty pays. Call me Mr. Cynical, but people with £2m houses have lawyers and a tendency to work out what they used to have and where it might have gone. One day you'll meet one who'll give you the book fair and square, but you'll sleep better until then.

Andy

[beeman]

I know in my job, admitedly in health care, I always work with the knowledge that I can sleep every night, all the choices I make reflect on that.
Your moral judgement, on the spot, made you hand it to the owner. Life is more important than money, Its about living to your ideals and values.

beeman
 

[pigafetta]

I don't think honesty pays at all, I'm afraid. It seems to me that the people with all the cash and the big cars tend to be unscrupulous buggers. I'd have done the same though. I don't have much but it makes me feel better knowing I can get through life without swindling people. I'll never make a million but it costs nothing to treat people with a little decency.


Dave B

[bullet350]

i would like to think honesty pays and that there is some sort of karma about.

however in my corner of the world where essex and london meet there seems to be a lot of people in £70'000 range rovers.
whilst some look like city types, many are 'essex boys' with no discernable intelligence or the ability to do a days work. they can't all be footballers.

bullet350

skint & honest

[guest24]

GC, you are not daft. Honesty is very honourable quality.

Mercifully, you dont suffer from what Oscar Wilde said - 'I can resist anything but temptation'!

[guest27]

Right choice - however as a thought....

My Uncle - when he was alive - collected 00 and H0 scale trains, also scratch built some beuts - he would often answer an ad in the paper - Hornby train set £30, go and look and see a carriage worth £100+, being Colin he would always point out the actual value of the part.  Most times he was told that they only wanted £30 and if he was happy they were... - Occasionally they would snatch the stuff back and on a few occasions they asked him to see the stuff for what it was worth for them in return for some of the 'profit'.

Have a friend in the 'village' who buys stuff and sells it on ebay - he has spent over £1000 in the local Woolworths in the run up to Christmas as he knows he can seel the stuff for more than they are selling it for - hey buys a lot from boot sales and small ads.  He used to tell people what stuff was worth but has decided - after being told similar to my Uncle - I only want X for it - that he will no longer bother - if people are happy with what they are getting he is happy to pay.

Where you did the right thing was not slipping the book in your pocket.  However maybe you should have asked him what he wanted for the contents of the bookcase - if he said have it, or £20 then that is his choice.  If he thougth - ummmmm there must be somethign there worth a few quid - then it would be up to him to bother.

Sleeping at night is a good thing - mind did you charge him for the time you were looking through his old books.

Final thought on this - I pick up loads of books form the local tip - had an 1890 is Longfellow from the bin a few weeks back and half a dozen voulmes of a victorian encyclopedia - could not reach the rest. They are probably worth 50p - but they are beautiful books - why do people throw them away?

R

[themoudie]

Greed and ignorance.

[xbruby]

Some years ago whilst visiting a lovely pub in Scotland I found myself in a little seating area with a shelf full of old dusty books. I happended upon a copy of JM Barries 'Peter Pan'. Imagine my disbelief when I discovered not only was it immaculate but a first edition. Now I could quite easily have slipped it into my pocket but as I was brought up to understand that honesty is always the best policy I promptly took it to the owner and suggested he perhaps remove it from the pub's eclectic collection of antiquities.

He shrugged his shoulders and dropped it on a shelf behind the bar. Philistine! Nevertheless it was the right thing to do and so was your action Graham. As an observant Taoist the 'middle way' is the only way to live one's life (almost) free of guilt!

Happy New Year!

Andy

[guest7]

In a sense my question was rhetorical because like many of you, I think that honesty is more valuable than mere money.

I am glad I told him about the book... although that comment about me being paid to look at books made me laugh. I hadn't thought of that 

I heard a story a while ago about an old codger who had a Vincent hitched to a chair. He used to be a regular site around Cowbridge on a sunday, but for many years the Vinny lay idle in his garage.

One afternoon in the early 90s a neighbour saw a sign in the local shop window saying "Vincent for sale, £80". He dashed back to the codger's house to tell him not to be so daft and he arrived to find the sidecar dumped in the hedge outside. The buyer had turned up, knocked him down to £75, removed the chair and thrown the bike in the back of an estate car and made a hurried exit.

The codger said, "but it only cost me £150 in the 60s and I thought it must have lost some of its value since then".

This raises lots of questions about the nature of 'value', but at the end of the day, some bloke knowingly deprived a seller of the true worth of the item.

GC

[Steve Lake]

Well of course you did the right thing #1...

But you could have photocopied the pics and shown them to the rest of us you selfish git!