If ever someone could make use of some found money, it was Shannon Baker. She and her husband were both unemployed. Both cars desperately needed repairs and they were expecting a child a few weeks on the day Shannon found an envelope containing $4,000 in a parking lot.

She was walking through the parking lot in Merrillville, Ind. With her daughter when she discovered the envelope. Instead of keeping the money which some might call a God sent windfall, Shannon practiced the honesty she had long-taught her daughter and took it to the police station.

Her friends and family were incredulous when they learned she had turned in the cash. Baker was thrilled that she had the opportunity to use the experience as a teaching moment for her daughter.

She learned the money belonged to a woman who had just left the same store Shannon had been in. The money belonged to that woman’s employer and it had fallen out of her pocket as when walked through the parking lot.

The seventy-something year old woman claimed the money from the police and a few days later turned up at Shannon’s door. The teary-eyed woman hugged her benefactor and presented her with another envelope, this one containing a much smaller sum, and then left without leaving her name.

The police had told Shannon that she was well within her rights to keep the found money and were surprised when she opted to turn it in. Had the money remained unclaimed for 180 days, she would have received it all. Still, she is gflad she did what she did and has a clear conscience.