Lesson of a Lost iPhone

Yesterday, I lost my iPhone (and its leather case, which doubles as a wallet with important cards) when it fell out of the car I was a passenger in as I exited and onto the parking lot pavement as I went into a Starbucks.

Later, from another Apple machine, I activated Apple’s Find My iPhone feature, which showed the vicinity of its location, in proximity to the Starbucks. I went into the Starbucks, asked about a lost iPhone and was happily reunited with my private property.

When I asked how it was found, the cashier told me that a stranger had found it on the lot, picked it up and turned it in. I asked whether the stranger was still in the store — this was about 20 minutes after I’d realized I’d lost the device — and the cashier said Yes. So, I bought and gave the stranger a Starbucks gift card after introducing myself (he tried to decline but I wouldn’t let him). I told him that I recognized that he had no moral obligation to do what he had done and that I appreciated his act of benevolence and wanted to express my gratitude. I also learned that the store’s cashier had offered to buy his beverage on the house — which he’d declined — as a gesture of thanks on behalf of Starbucks (which was the cashier’s decision, not general store or company policy).

The upshot is that everyone gained value. I bought another Starbucks product, tipped the cashier, gifted the kind stranger and walked away with my private property, having reaffirmed confidence, trust and loyalty in two of my favorite companies — big, profitable businesses, incidentally — as the beneficiary of an act of decency. No moral guilt imposed or taken. For those who always come back with — or have to answer — ‘how would society work without government intervention and the morality of altruism as the standard?’, what happened yesterday is an example.

This is how capitalism works. This is how men act when men are free. There is all the proof you need.