HOW HONEST ARE YOU?

Everyone speculates about this once in a while: you find a wallet on the street....the supermarket cashier gives you back too much change....the waiter makes a mistake on your bill, in your favor....and so on. What do you do? Correct the error and pat yourself on the back for being honest? Or pocket the money and walk away, knowing that no one will know the difference. How's this story for putting someone to the ultimate test? This bizarre situation was described in the Los Angeles Times a few days ago. In summary: A young man named Xu Ting, in China, went to his bank's ATM to withdraw $140. He got the $140 from the ATM, and then, when he looked at the receipt, he saw that the bank had erroneously deducted only 14 cents from his account. What would you have done at that point? What would you tell your children to do? What Xu Ting did resulted in his getting a life sentence in prison! After observing the bank's error, Xu Ting stayed at the ATM and made 170 more withdrawals totalling about $24,000 over the next eight hours. He blew the money---gambling and other indiscretions---and eventually the police caught up with him. Now, a bank's ATM that allows 171 withdrawals totalling $24,000 from one account in a single day is, to say the least, inefficient. And someone who makes those withdrawals, and doesn't realize that the machine is---supposedly---keeping a record of them, is also, to say the least, inefficient. "Stupid" also comes to mind, but that's another story. Xu Ting was arrested for bank robbery, the penalty for which in China can be life in prison. Harsh, yes, but that's China. The saga doesn't end there. Apparently, ATM machines in China are notoriously glitched, and when mistakes are made it is always presumed to be the customers' fault. Example: If an ATM spits our blank paper or counterfeit money, the bank will claim that you have no proof that it came from the ATM. Go argue. You lose. Indeed, banking in China with the government-run banks is at the top of the list of Murphy's Law---anything that can go wrong, will. And the customer is to blame. The Times article noted, among other public grievances, that the average waiting time for service at China's four biggest government-run banks is 41 minutes! And you complain over a wait of more than a minute or two at your bank? Well, public anti-bank sentiment latched on to the plight of Xu Ting, and miracle of miracles, the do-no-wrong government caved in to the protests and agreed to give Xu Ting a new trial. A result is expected any day now, and hopefully I'll be able to track down the results for you. I suspect that Xu Ting will still be found guilty, but will get a lighter sentence---maybe only 40 or 50 years instead of life. He doesn't have a whole lot going for him. His family has stood by him, claiming he is innocent. His father said that Xu Ting is "naive," and "unlucky." I'll say. Xu Ting himself explained that when he got his hands on the money he kept it "to protect it for the bank." He said that he wanted to turn himself in, but a friend dissuaded him. You won't be seeing Xu Ting's case on Law and Order any time soon, but it sure does add some spice to the issue of whether you should turn in that wallet or give the cashier back the excess change you received. (Full disclosure time: Many years ago I was playing a dime slot machine in a Las Vegas hotel, and the machine went bonkers. I started winning on every pull of the handle, and soon a crowd gathered around me, cheering me on and waiting to take my place when I finished. A security guard saw the crowd and told me I could stay as long as I liked---house policy, since the glitch was not my fault---but when I quit he would close the machine. I walked away having won $90---that's a lot of dimes---and I kept it all. If I can risk money in a casino, the casino has to risk money on the accuracy of its machines. No guilt. No remorse. No jail time.)