Do the right thing! It’s easy to say… and most of us try… but could you really do it if you were tested in a big way?

R

abbi Noach Muroff was put to the test — and came through with flying colors in 2013, when he was living in New Haven, Connecticut.

“We were looking for a new desk for our home office,” Rabbi Muroff recounts. He was thrilled to find a secondhand desk in great condition for only $150.

Eager to get the desk home, he and a friend went to pick it up with Rabbi Muroff’s van. But when they got it home, they realized it wouldn’t fit through the office door. Looking at the desk carefully, Rabbi Muroff realized he’d have to take it apart. If he took off the wooden desktop, the desk would fit through the doorframe — just barely.

But when he removed the desktop, Rabbi Muroff noticed something unusual. Behind one of the desk drawers was a plastic bag, and when he looked closer, he saw there was money inside. Curious, he pulled it out — and discovered $98,000 that had fallen behind the drawer.

What Would You Do?

Now, stop reading for a minute and test yourself.

You’re in a room, alone, and you’re holding a bag with $98,000. Nobody is looking. Nobody will ever know. Your heart is beating wildly; it’s more money than you’ve ever seen in one place in your life. Money that could feed your family, buy you a trip somewhere exciting, or maybe a better car, or even go to tzedakah.

What would you do?

 “My wife and I were totally in shock,” Rabbi Muroff said. “We couldn’t believe what was going on. This only happens in stories!”

But he immediately knew who the money belonged to. The woman who’d sold him the desk had mentioned that she’d bought it a few years earlier from Staples. “She put it together herself, so we knew it was obviously her money.”

Wondering what Rabbi Muroff did? He called her. It was already late at night, but he knew she’d be thrilled. “She was speechless,” says Rabbi Muroff. “She couldn’t believe we’d actually call to tell her about it.”

It turned out she’d inherited a lot of money and had tucked some away for safekeeping in the desk, where some of her inheritance had fallen behind the drawer.

“I was sure it would turn up,” Patty told Rabbi Muroff.  But she’d allowed the money to walk right out of her house with a stranger — not even realizing it.