The Rolex story reminds me of an amusing set of events that may have no
significance, except in showing how strange honesty and dishonesty can be
in our modern world of strangers and technology.
I left my Leica M3 in the Washington airport and went on a trip. I
registered the item as lost with baggage claim, and I put a 'lost' ad in
the Post. When I returned, I checked with the local baggage claim. They
were hesitant to show me what they had, but I persisted, and they had my
camera. A manager came by and said that a woman brought it in, but she
desparately wanted to keep it, and asked whether she could receive it if
it was unclaimed. Noted that the item had not been matched to items
registered as lost.
Then I got a call from a pawn operator who said he had the camera and
didn't want to be receiving stolen goods. He was about to make me an
offer to pay what he paid, and then he was cut off and didn't call again.
Then I got a call from a truck driver who said he had the camera. He
would take a modest reward via Western Union, but he didn't send the
camera. Months later I received a package from baggage claim -- it was a
Leica, not my model. From the pictures I was able to detect that the
camera had been lost for many months and had obviously been hanging around
and the baggage people needed to clean it out.
In recounting this story, I see that a lot of people have a little larceny
in their heart and also want to do the right thing. Everybody's ideal
would be to receive goods which cannot be traced back to any owner, with
the best example being the lottery. I was the only one who ended in that
situation. That situation only arises in a modern culture where people are
disconnected from each other and can easily be disconnected from their
possessions.
Kent Myers
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>