14 DAY TRIAL // Three college students from State University of New York at New Paltz say they found envelopes full of cash inside a used couch they had bought for $20 (€14.6) from the Salvation Army in early March.
The three roommates, Reese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo, were sitting on the sofa watching a movie last month when they noticed some lumps in the two side cushions built into their new couch. They examined the pillows and were surprised to discover that several envelopes stuffed with cash were hidden inside them.
One of the students opened the zipper on one arm of the sofa and found the first envelope, which contained about $4,000 (€2,920), but more money kept on coming, as they continued searching. A total of $40,000 (€29,200) was stashed inside the couch.
The roommates were ecstatic, they started screaming and making plans about what they would spend the cash on. They were so noisy that in the morning their neighbors thought they had won the lottery.
“We were just really freaked out by it. It had these bubble wrap envelopes, just like two or three of them. We ripped them out and was just like freaking out, like an inch and a half of hundred dollar bills,” Reese Werkhoven said, according to Gawker.
However, they quickly abandoned their plans to buy cars and boats and go on vacations when they discovered that one of the envelopes had the name of the rightful owner on it. After debating what to do, the roommates decided that being honest is more important that their frivolous plans, so they contacted the woman and returned the money to her the next day.
They admit they all considered keeping the money, but thought that if any of them used it, they would have felt guilty.
“We all agreed that we had to bring the money back to whoever it belonged to,” Russo said. “It's their money. We didn't earn it.”
The elderly woman, who was not identified, was grateful for their honesty and told them that her family members had accidentally donated the couch while she was recovering from a back surgery. She added that the money they found were her life savings and gave the roommates $1,000 (€729) as a reward.
There are situations when people forget about moral principles and act upon instinct when finding money lying around, but these there students proved that integrity and honesty is more important that cash.