LOST AND FOUND
By Kate Stanton
What would you do if you found hundreds of dollars on the street? Obviously, you’d shriek, “Oh my God!”, then snatch up the notes quick smart before they drifted away. Afterwards, though, you’d have to figure out what to do with the money, which isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. It’s one thing to find a buck or two, but quite another to find a few hundy.
Once upon a time, when I was a 19-year-old uni student, I spotted a $100 note on the street. As I bent down to pick it up, I saw another $100 just a couple metres away. Then another and another, strewn down the footpath like breadcrumbs, until I had $400. I looked around for more, thinking maybe I was on a hidden-camera show or the subject of a university study on the psychological effects of sudden wealth. (What happens if we fool this random girl into thinking she’s rich now?!) There was no one else around.
In movies, people who find money always do something dramatic to celebrate; they’ll take a big whiff of its musty scent, launch it into the air, then laugh maniacally as it flutters down around them like autumn leaves. Maybe they’ll go to the strip club or root around in a bathtub filled with cash. But it’s hard to ‘make it rain’ with any cinematic flair when you’ve only got four hundred-dollar notes. (When you wind up with a bunch of money, it’s funny how you immediately need more.) I
