Imagine you're picking through a dumpster in Tennessee searching for cans that pay a five-cent deposit and you find a bag containing $3,800 in cash. What would you do?
For Joe Ellis the answer was easy – return the money to its rightful owner.
Ellis made the discovery Saturday night in a trash receptacle behind a Speedy Mart in Murfreesboro.
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After finding the bag filled with hundred dollar bills, Ellis turned it into the nearby convenience store where workers contacted police, the
Los Angeles Times reported.
Within 48 hours, authorities were able to locate the man who apparently owned the bag of cash and accidentally discarded it while cleaning out his car behind the convenience store.
For his honesty, Ellis received a $400 reward from the grateful owner, some $3,400 less than if he had decided to quietly pocket the money himself.
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According to the Times, Ellis said he isn't necessarily opposed to pocketing cash he finds discarded in dumpsters, having once pocketed $15 recovered from a trash can; however $3,800 in cash was apparently too large of a sum to pocket without first attempting to find its rightful owner.
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