Personal Essay: An Ethical Dilemma

I was faced with an ethical dilemma that I will never forget. I was 11-years old, and my best friend Hollie and I wanted to go out to eat, so we begged my parents to take us to McDonalds. After talking my parent into taking us, we talked them into letting us stay there to eat so we could play on the outdoor playground. While we were playing I happened to find a wallet in the ball pit with One-hundred dollars in it. I could not believe I found One-hundred dollars. No one else was playing with us, so I was not sure who lost it. There was no identification or anything else in the wallet. I ran over to the table and told my mother and father what I had found, and told them I was going to turn the wallet in at the front counter. When I turned in the wallet the manager thanked me and told me that it wasn’t everyday that someone would be honest enough to turn in the wallet. The manager said. “If it is okay, I would like to take your name and number.” I asked him why? He said, “because I am going to keep this wallet locked up …show more content…
If I happened to receive the money back; however I would not keep it, I would donate it for a good cause or my church. Being ethical should come naturally, and it does for me. I am glad that I made the decision that I did. The only thing that I wish I would have done differently is give the money to someone who needed it more then me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that bike, but I didn’t need it. My ethical decision was in justice; what was fair and right, and I went with my gut, I was making a responsible decision, I acted with integrity and altruism, not knowing that I was going to get anything out of my desicison to turn the money in, I was only concerned about the person that lost the money, getting it back. That is what having good ethics and having integrity is. It is doing the right thing. In the end, in some way you are rewarded for