So tonight was one of those tests of scruples for me.  I was at the station editing episode eight of the show.  I was hungry.  It was 2:00 in the morning.  I tend to get hungry at about 2:00 in the morning when I'm editing.  It's quiet at the station at 2:00 a.m.  There are not many people there at 2:00 a.m.

When I get hungry I go to the sandwich machines.  I eat sandwiches.  There is also a change machine, you know those things that you slip a five, or a ten, or a twenty dollar bill into.  It converts your money into change and you can eat sandwiches.  I think everyone has always imagined sliding a photocopy of a bill into one of these things.  I have.  I have imagined finding a way to fool the machine to get free change.

Every time I ever have put money into one of these machines I have imagined the "what if" scenarios.  As the change clinks out of the machine I always imagine it fucking up.  I imagine the machine fucking up and giving me a windfall of loonies.  I imagine it as if I am some dreamer pumping quarters into a slot machine.  I imagine this windfall.  But it never happens, the machine always counts correctly.  The machine always works.

Tonight however was a test of honesty for this person.  This person being me, discovered a flaw in the system tonight.  The flaw was quite unusual, and one which most likely will never be stumbled upon again.  I had opportunity tonight to be rich.  I had opportunity.

See I only had a twenty dollar bill.  That kind of sucks because it means a lot of change to be lugging around.  Twenty dollars worth of change to be exact.  But I went for it... I was starving and I needed a sandwich.  I put my twenty in the slot... clink, clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink,clink...  Twenty, one dollar coins popped out.  The perfect amount.  The correct amount.  I had hoped for more....  So as I sat there counting my change I noticed something.  It was sitting on top of the change machine....  It was a key.

It was 2:00 a.m.  There was nobody around.  There was a key on top of the change machine....   Nahhh.

Yahhh.   It was one of those Medeco keys.  The type you can not make copies of.  It was a small key, with a round head.  It felt like money as I rolled it between my index finger and my thumb.  I looked around the room and there was nobody there.  I looked at the change machine.  I looked at the key in my hand.  I looked at the lock on the change machine.  It was a Medeco lock.  It was the lock and I knew it.

This was insane.  Obviously whomever maintains the machine had been in that day and had forgotten the key.  They had just left it sitting there on top of the machine.  They had made a mistake.

I still did not quite fully believe that it could be the real key.  How could it be.  That kind of thing just doesn't happen.  It did.
I stuck the key into the lock.  The lock turned and popped out of the machine.  It was a handle.  I began turning the handle counter clockwise.  I pulled open the front of the machine and looked inside.

Insanity.  Obviously somebody was going to walk into the empty room and charge me with something...  nobody did.  Insanity.  Inside the change machine there was money... lots of money.  I grabbed a wad of bills from the bottom of the box.  It was a big wad of mostly five's and tens, there were also some twenties.  I flipped through the wad and estimated there to be about five or six hundred dollars.  Insanity.  Then I realized there was more money, the change.  There was a metal container which contained many more dollars.  There must have been at least a thousand dollars in loonies....  I dunno, maybe five hundred.  I can't really estimate how many loonies there where, but the box was about 10 inches deep and about 6X6 inches in width and length.  It was full of dollar coins.  There was at least 1000 dollars in this discovery.

I looked at the bills in my hand.  I smelled the bills.  Then I put them back inside the machine and locked the door shut.  I put the key back into my pocket and I went back to the edit suite.  This was insane.

I couldn't steal the money.  I knew that I would never get caught...  probably.  I will be honest, if I had been somewhere else...  I might have thought about it.  But I was at the station.  If I ever got caught our show would be ruined.  How would I look if I was caught stealing from the change machine... even if I did find the key.  Even if somebody did leave the key on the top of the machine.  Ultimately I would still be the idiot.

I thought about not returning the key.  I thought about just taking the money in small amounts... a sandwich here, a crispy crunch there, a chocolate milk here, a boil in cup noodles there...  I could eat for free for the rest of my life with this key.  I could be rich.  And I could get caught.

I am a chicken.  In the morning I went into the station and returned the goods.  I surprise myself sometimes.

See ya tomorrow.
Tom