PC-GUY
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[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST <!-- Empty line is needed --> <noscript> </noscript>
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<!--publication CST -->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] <!--pub_section NWS page 2 last modified 8/10/05 10:50 PM-->[/font][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Ed Krakowiak did a good deed last weekend. He found somebody's $1,000 paycheck in the parking lot of his local Dairy Queen in Downers Grove, tracked down the rightful owner and returned it to the guy's wife, who thanked him for his efforts.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Normally, that's where that story would end, but not this time.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]This time, Krakowiak contacted me.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]To complain.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]About not getting a reward.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"Now I feel like an idiot," he said. "Too bad someone not so honest didn't find the check and forge his signature and cash it."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]My first inclination was to give Krakowiak a brusque dust-off. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]From where I sit, it's not really a good deed if you've got your hand out afterward looking for payback. While monetary rewards are nice, they should never be expected, and the fact one wasn't paid shouldn't be considered an invitation to publicly vilify the person you were theoretically trying to help.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]But just as I've come to believe over the years that ethics are situational, I've also started to think they might be geographical, as well.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Lifelong Chicagoans, I've learned, have their own way of looking at these things, and I'm guessing many will be more offended the check owner didn't pay a reward than that the good deed-doer whined about not getting a little something for the effort.[/font]
<!--startsubhead-->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]What you're voting on[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]So we'll hold a Page Two referendum. Before the voting starts, though, let me tell you the whole story.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]It started Saturday evening.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak, 39, who works as an IT manager, had been fishing with his 4-year-old son. After they got home, he decided to pick up some ice cream.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak was on his way back to his car, ice cream in hand, when he spotted a folded piece of paper on the ground that looked like a check.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I just kind of picked it up and put it in my pocket. I had this thing of ice cream, and it was hot out," he said, explaining why he took it home before examining it. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]When he got home, Krakowiak saw that it was indeed a check, dated the previous day and payable from Owens-Corning to an individual named Chris whose address was printed on the check. I'm withholding Chris' last name here because I consider him an innocent bystander.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak got excited when he saw the amount. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I wasn't expecting it to be for $1,000," he said.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak checked the phone book for Chris' number but couldn't find it. Around 9 p.m. he drove to Chris' house. Nobody was home.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak next circled the neighborhood, theorizing Chris might be out looking for his check. When that didn't work, he went back to Dairy Queen in case somebody was searching for it there, but that didn't help, either.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By the time Krakowiak got home, his wife had found Chris' telephone number. They called and left a message.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]After running errands the next morning, he called again and reached Chris' wife. Krakowiak said she told him she didn't know a check was missing. Krakowiak volunteered to drop it off, as Chris just lives a couple miles away. The wife said that would be fine. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak went immediately and turned over the check.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"Thanks so much. Have a nice day," is how Krakowiak remembers her response.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak was expecting more, given his time investment.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I could have just gone to a currency exchange and forged this guy's name on the check," Krakowiak said. "I thought it saved him a lot of trouble. I'm not being greedy or anything. These people were living in a nicer house than mine, with nicer cars in the driveway. It was just kind of weird that it's all that I got."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak said he had been looking upon the situation as an object lesson for his children: Do the right thing, and you will be rewarded. But going away empty-handed wasn't the lesson he had in mind.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]What exactly did he have in mind?[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I wasn't expecting 10 percent. I was expecting five or 10 bucks. Twenty bucks would have made my day."[/font]
<!--startsubhead-->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Deed 'definitely appreciated'[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Chris, a 51-year-old salesman, was somewhat flabbergasted Wednesday to receive my call, not quite sure what he had done to deserve it.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"We definitely appreciated the good deed, but we had canceled the check almost immediately," he said, explaining why a reward hadn't been considered. "That's the wonderful thing about today's banking system."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Chris said his own philosophy is that we're all rewarded for our good deeds, just not necessarily with money.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The voting is now open.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Let me know whose side you're taking, and if you'd be so kind, explain your reasoning.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]There won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So you'll have that going for you, which is nice.
[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][font=helvetica,arial]The Sun-Times Company[/font][/font]
[/font]
<!--publication CST -->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] <!--pub_section NWS page 2 last modified 8/10/05 10:50 PM-->[/font][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Ed Krakowiak did a good deed last weekend. He found somebody's $1,000 paycheck in the parking lot of his local Dairy Queen in Downers Grove, tracked down the rightful owner and returned it to the guy's wife, who thanked him for his efforts.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Normally, that's where that story would end, but not this time.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]This time, Krakowiak contacted me.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]To complain.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]About not getting a reward.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"Now I feel like an idiot," he said. "Too bad someone not so honest didn't find the check and forge his signature and cash it."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]My first inclination was to give Krakowiak a brusque dust-off. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]From where I sit, it's not really a good deed if you've got your hand out afterward looking for payback. While monetary rewards are nice, they should never be expected, and the fact one wasn't paid shouldn't be considered an invitation to publicly vilify the person you were theoretically trying to help.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]But just as I've come to believe over the years that ethics are situational, I've also started to think they might be geographical, as well.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Lifelong Chicagoans, I've learned, have their own way of looking at these things, and I'm guessing many will be more offended the check owner didn't pay a reward than that the good deed-doer whined about not getting a little something for the effort.[/font]
<!--startsubhead-->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]What you're voting on[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]So we'll hold a Page Two referendum. Before the voting starts, though, let me tell you the whole story.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]It started Saturday evening.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak, 39, who works as an IT manager, had been fishing with his 4-year-old son. After they got home, he decided to pick up some ice cream.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak was on his way back to his car, ice cream in hand, when he spotted a folded piece of paper on the ground that looked like a check.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I just kind of picked it up and put it in my pocket. I had this thing of ice cream, and it was hot out," he said, explaining why he took it home before examining it. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]When he got home, Krakowiak saw that it was indeed a check, dated the previous day and payable from Owens-Corning to an individual named Chris whose address was printed on the check. I'm withholding Chris' last name here because I consider him an innocent bystander.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak got excited when he saw the amount. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I wasn't expecting it to be for $1,000," he said.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak checked the phone book for Chris' number but couldn't find it. Around 9 p.m. he drove to Chris' house. Nobody was home.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak next circled the neighborhood, theorizing Chris might be out looking for his check. When that didn't work, he went back to Dairy Queen in case somebody was searching for it there, but that didn't help, either.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By the time Krakowiak got home, his wife had found Chris' telephone number. They called and left a message.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]After running errands the next morning, he called again and reached Chris' wife. Krakowiak said she told him she didn't know a check was missing. Krakowiak volunteered to drop it off, as Chris just lives a couple miles away. The wife said that would be fine. [/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak went immediately and turned over the check.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"Thanks so much. Have a nice day," is how Krakowiak remembers her response.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak was expecting more, given his time investment.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I could have just gone to a currency exchange and forged this guy's name on the check," Krakowiak said. "I thought it saved him a lot of trouble. I'm not being greedy or anything. These people were living in a nicer house than mine, with nicer cars in the driveway. It was just kind of weird that it's all that I got."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Krakowiak said he had been looking upon the situation as an object lesson for his children: Do the right thing, and you will be rewarded. But going away empty-handed wasn't the lesson he had in mind.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]What exactly did he have in mind?[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"I wasn't expecting 10 percent. I was expecting five or 10 bucks. Twenty bucks would have made my day."[/font]
<!--startsubhead-->[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Deed 'definitely appreciated'[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Chris, a 51-year-old salesman, was somewhat flabbergasted Wednesday to receive my call, not quite sure what he had done to deserve it.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"We definitely appreciated the good deed, but we had canceled the check almost immediately," he said, explaining why a reward hadn't been considered. "That's the wonderful thing about today's banking system."[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Chris said his own philosophy is that we're all rewarded for our good deeds, just not necessarily with money.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The voting is now open.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Let me know whose side you're taking, and if you'd be so kind, explain your reasoning.[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]There won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So you'll have that going for you, which is nice.
[/font]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][font=helvetica,arial]The Sun-Times Company[/font][/font]