August 3, 2005

Lost Pen

Today on the bus a really tall, butch, young, bald male was holding a book of Victorian Poetry. He dropped his pen, looked around briefly, and either didn't see it or didn't think he dropped something. I wanted to tell him it was just to the right of his shoe, but he was 7 rows away and I would have had to scream it (plus, the bus was full of people).

None of the other passangers seemed to care.... and it was a really crappy, chewed up pen. That's how I justified letting him lose it.... but I still feel bad about his 15c loss.

Posted by hans1995 at August 3, 2005 10:37 AM | TrackBack
Comments

you should write to The Ethicist about this moral dilemma. It may eat at you for the rest of your life.

Posted by: Roomie at August 3, 2005 1:06 PM

Then again the dropped pen may have been a ruse to attract the attention of a nearer passenger whose attention was not wanting to be attracted. He might have been more successful by carrying a copy of "Hemmings Motor News."

Or it could have been yet another newswriter secretly gathering material to reveal how calously indifferent modern people are to the losses of strangers.

Offhand, I would say that if the pen was a mere 'Bic, then no eye should have been turned. However, if it were, say, a fountain pen of the Montblanc or a collectable Waterman marque then it was a bus of fools that let pass a slip of the pen ...

Posted by: Your Coworker at August 3, 2005 7:17 PM

I went to http://www.montblanc.com/ at my coworker Ron's request.... all they had was a collection of women's purses.... is there something you aren't telling us, Ron(da)?

Posted by: GenerationBob at August 4, 2005 1:04 PM

C'est ne pas tout, regard dans les autres pages, SVP.

Posted by: Votre Colleague at August 4, 2005 1:48 PM

As Freud might say, sometimes a pen is just a pen.

Posted by: Underblog at August 11, 2005 12:27 PM