What a Great topic firewxman!
You know, everyday I eyeball that 'take a penny tray' at the StopNRob, and I get to thinking...I bet a guy could run a fleet of trays, and really make some pay! From my understanding, those pennys are legally considered 'Communal Property', first come first served kind of thing?...
The girls behind the counter are not allowed to take them, I do know that, any errant change spit out by the register that is abandoned is supposed to be tossed into that 'take a penny' tray!..Not only Pennys, but theres N's, D's and Q's even! Makes a guy get all wondering?...Here I got up early, ran 20 miles of totters, kicking chips and grabbing clad, and pulled less than what is sitting here in this damned tray? Free for the taking? It aint right!
Grandpap always said, "Son, you take care of your pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves"..so it is confusing to me? Where does all that unclaimed and abandoned change go at the end of a shift? Imagine the total amount across the Country? Who really owns it? I dont know! Does anybody!?
I will say this, regarding your question...NO! I will not take a damned penny out of that free tray for any reason! Even if my tab comes to $6.01 and all I got is Six, I'll go out to the car and get a penny to balance the score...The thing is, once a bear gets comfortable eating free easy pickins out of the campground dumpster, or robbing tourists for marshmallows, he gets lazy and his time is short on this Planet..Where does it all end? Today its just a penny, but tomorrow its 6c then 12? Before you know it, you are knocking off a Brinks truck!
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I'll take a wild honest found totlot or dirt penny anyday over a 'take a penny' tray fed...Dont get me wrong, we all know I aint no bastion of morality with any aspersions for setting an example! I'll rob a guy, steal a boat or car, shoot a Yellowstone Park Elk, hunt Gettysburg, jump a middleschool playground fence for a few bucks clad, illegally snare a black bear and sell his gall bladder to the Chinese on the black market,, I'm even willing to make up a post about imaginary finds of silver dollars and gold coins in an Amsterdam tin box!
But for some reason, I cant take a penny out of that free tray for nothing! Its just too damn easy....like when some cashier rings you up wrong and you did the math in your head? Yeah..its sort of a triumph to set them straight and even up..just to show mental mathematical prowess if nothing else....I'll never short shrift a clerk on their error either... I will kill an Elk though, steal a boat, have an oversized treble hook in my tackle box on a designated trout stream,..rob a guy, like I said,... some things in Life are more precious than free pennies, sheeit! They are laying around all over the place!....FWIW, I actually do have a few self imposed morality constraints...I wont cheat on my Taxes or kill a songbird with a pellet gun just for giggles...thats about it...pretty proud of myself!
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Mud