Wednesday, June 24, 2009

question of ethics

Let's say you go to the supermarket down the street. Let's say you're standing in line waiting to purchase your goods and you notice the lady in front of you is buying some avocados. Being environmentally-minded, she has them freely sitting there, not inside a bag. Let's say the checker forgets to bag one of them and the lady leaves, having purchased her avocados, having all in her possession but the one left behind. Let's say it's your turn to buy your stuff and the checker bags the lady's avocado in YOUR bag which you don't discover until you're home putting your goods away.

Is this a tainted avocado? Have I unknowingly stolen it? It's been paid for. Do i take it back to the store, it not being mine? Also, keep in mind the several times i've a) purchased a food item at this store that has gone bad (and it shouldn't, and i shouldn't have to check or shake things to know if they're bad, i.e. cream) and b) bought things and left them there, mostly due (in my opinions) to the lack of attention of the checker. So what say you?

Here is how i feel about it and what i did. I let it sit on the counter for a day or so, and looked at it periodically. Sometimes i would squeeze it. What a good avocado. That lady chose well. Finally I decided that the lady would have wanted me to have it instead of having bought it and then the store keeps it. It would have been a crime to let it go bad. A crime against fruits, which I am particularly against. It was a delicious avocado. Thanks lady, and I'm sorry.

7 comments:

Joel said...

Wasting it would have been worse. I think you're supposed to choke on it just a little, though.

Rob said...

Once again we see the same rationalization by Eve that got Adam in trouble.

RogueHistorian said...

Think about it this way, eventually, sometime in the future, you'll probably get home and discover that one of your avacados has gone missing, and you'll realize that the universe decided it was time to pay back the extra avacado you recieved.

It all balances out in the end, so in the meantime make some guacamole, kick back and relax!

Scoresbys said...

Okay, so this same scenario happened to me. Only it wasn't an delicious creamy avocado. It was a pack of cigarettes. Yes, imagine my surprise when I get home from a little outing to Smith's and get back to my apartment at BYU and start unpacking my groceries. So the ethical question becomes this: Do I simply throw them away? Or do I return them to the store for some other sucker (ha!) to buy them and inch closer to death?

Alanna said...

Oh, please. We all know that Brooklyn is just a tiny little suburb of NYC. You couldn't have gone looking for the poor avacado-less woman? ;)

lindsey v said...

If you would have returned it to the store, they probably would have just thrown it away since they couldn't be sure how long you had had it. So you just saved it from the trash bin.

)en said...

Good comments. I appreciate your theories and support. I'm also really happy i got a comment from someone i don't know. :D

You got someone else's cigarettes? That totally blows. At least mine was something i would have wanted. What did you do? I'd have thrown them away. Wait-- first i might have played a trick on people using them, somehow. I don't know how.

You know, I could have looked for the avocado lady. "Laaaadyyyy! Avocado laaaadyyy!" This behavior would not have been abnormal and I may have even found her. OR, i could have posted a sign in the store: "FOUND: one avocado. Lady who bought it had blonde hair, i think, maybe?"