Moral Dilemma?
Last spring our neighbor across the street (who we do not know very well, other than saying"Hi" in passing) put his snow blower, which appeared to be close to brand new, out on his curb with a sign next to it that said "FREE" My husband knows a guy that seems to be able to fix pretty much anything so my husband took the snow blower and brought to his friend. Turns out, our neighbor had never put any motor oil in the snow blower and that is all that was wrong with it. Now my husband thinks we just got a close to new snow blower free. I feel weird about this. Part of me thinks we should give it back to our neighbor, but part of me feels we shouldn't. Looking for opinions. If we keep it, by the way, my husband wants to spray paint the blower so the neighbor won't easily recognize it. Neighbor was not home when husband took it off of the curb.
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How would your husband feel if the situation were reversed? How would you feel? There is a universal law – the law of reciprocity (you reap what you sow). In this case you can keep the blower and be morally fine. However, if you return it or offer, you have increased the probability that you will gain even more. I would offer to return knowing that on a universal basis even greater good can come from that honesty and kindness, than can come from a slightly used snow blower.
I have lived this law and speak about it often. http://www.chuckgallagher.com There is great power is doing the right thing even when it seems that the right thing is counter to your immediate benefit.
I think you should keep the blower……but the next time you see the neighbor tell him how you fixed the blower…..I’m sure he’ll be curious.
Well, your neighbor could have also had it repaired, he chose not to. I would spray it a different color if it will help you feel less awkward. Don’t feel guilty, you did not steal it, you took something he was giving away. Kudos on your lucky find.
Give it back.
Tricky one! I know what you mean about feeling you ought to give it back BUT he did give it away it just happens to be you who got it. Keep it. Is he ever going to know anyway that yours is the same one?
You should keep it. The neighbor was giving it away, to you. I would not advise though spray painting it. Why would you be ashamed? It is yours.
As long as the neighbor was giving it away, there is no harm or moral dilemma. Yeah they may have been idiotic about not properly maintaining it, but there is not much you can do about that. If it had stopped working and your husband had told him that it was unrepairable or worn out, that would be different.
There is no reason to feel guilty. Your neighbor sounds very lazy. There are many people who throw things away as soon as they stop working because they are too lazy to figure out what caused it to stop working. Don’t worry about it. But if it makes you feel better, you could just snow blow his sidewalk for him after you do yours.
Your right, moral dilemma.
Even if you don’t know the neighbor that well, your husband should go over and ask him about the snow blower, find out if he just didn’t want it, or if he just thought he broke it and was getting rid of it.
If it was just to get rid of them let him know your buddy fixed it up and it runs now and your thankful for the the snow blower. If it was because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, I’m sure he bought a new one already. You should be in the clear, most people don’t put stuff on the curb unless they want to get rid of it.
Good Luck
Keep it, paint it, use it in good health. Your neighbor was not smart enough or interested enough to keep it going or take care of it or get it repaired.
He had it on the curb for "Free"… He didn’t say "Free only if you’re not a neighbor".
Your husband did nothing wrong and I don’t see the "dilemma" here.
I say keep the snow blower. Your neighbor was clearly getting rid of the snow blower so there should be no issues with you having it. Additionally I would not worry about painting it. Snow blower are all pretty much standard in appearance so you neighbor shouldn’t have any way of knowing you didn’t buy it your self.
Don’t feel bad ~ and don’t bother to repaint the snow blower unless you dislike the colour!
When someone puts something on the kerb with a ‘free’ sign, they are saying "Save me the trouble of taking this to the tip, please!"
Your neighbour could have put the blower in the bin, instead he decided some enterprising person might be able to get some use out of it.
And he was right!
If you feel awkward, you could offer to put the blower to use around his house this winter (once or twice). That would definitely cancel out any ‘owings’!
Enjoy your snow blower and congratulations to hubby for being smart enough to recognise a good thing when he sees it
Cheers
Depends on what kind of neighbor you want to be, personally, I would offer it back explaining what was wrong with it. Perhaps they’ve replaced it and will make the offer for you to keep it. You’ll make a clear statement about your own morals and learn something of your neighbor’s as well.
Sure you should keep it! He threw it out anyways! So why worry about it? If he wanted to fix it, I’m sure he would have. So don’t feel like you have done anything wrong.
If the sign said "Free" – then it’s yours and you don’t have to feel bad about it. It’s the neighbors own fault for not finding out what was wrong with it. Maybe he had other reasons for giving it away too.
Keep it and enjoy it. I put things at the curb myself all the time ( things that only need a little tweaking to be perfectly useful, but that I no longer want or need). I love seeing someone take it away, and HOPE they will use it! My thinking is that if the neighbor wanted it , he would have put some small effort into maintaning it or investigating why it wasnt working. He wanted it gone, for whatever reason. Enjoy your snow blower.
Put yourself in your neighbor’s shoes. How would you like a neighbor to behave if the situation was reversed? Personally, I would want my neighbor to be honest.
Who knows, maybe he already bought a new snow blower and doesn’t need that one. Maybe he’ll offer to sell it to you guys at a discounted price.
Technically, it’s yours since he had a "free" sign on it. But I think Karma will catch up to you some day.
Also, I think what your husband is planning on doing, spray painting it, says a lot. If you guys thought that it was rightfully yours, then why bother trying to cover it up?
How about you and hubby keep the blower but let your neighbor use it once in a while.
Why not respect your neighbour by taking him at his public word? Why ask why he chose to be free of it? Really, he seems to be a private person with his own reasons for doing things. If you feel better about painting yours, do that. Maybe you’ll get to know him better and you can joke about it. But right now, he’s happy to keep his distance, so paint it and accept that he would not wish you to feel under any obligation at all. Respect him enough to accept that he meant "Free" when he wrote "Free"!