In your opinion, is it stealing if you pick up a penny, nickel, dime or quarter from the floor of the customer side of a register? What about at a drive thru window?

I was getting my son out of the house tonight running in the grocery store to get some milk. I noticed a penny on the floor walking in so I told him "look Jr! There is some food for your mitmeal turtle!" (That's what he calls his teenage mutant ninja turtle penny bank) He got so excited he began looking for more mitmeal turtle food and to my surprise there was about two coins at every register. It was fun to watch him get so excited. Lol! But in the drive thru I have to open the door cuz the window don't roll down and I didn't pick up the change for him because there was a car behind me. Wouldn't the two situations be like the same thing? Or am I teaching my son to steal? And if that's the case then where do you draw the line? Just at registers? Cuz picking up a penny in the parking lot has never been an issue! Lol! I think too much sometimes! Just wanted your thoughts and opinions. 😊

No, that's not stealing. It's money on the floor or ground that someone dropped and either didn't notice or didn't care to bend down to get it.

I do not consider it stealing.

Not stealing in my book.  It's on your side of the counter. Someone else lost and you were the lucky one to come a long.

On the floor by the registers not stealing. Drive thrus might be different. I dropped changed giving it to the cashier and when I went to grab more  she told me not to that they picked up the dropped money at the end of he day. They have also replaced money that was dropped when giving change. They would need that money to balance their register. I wouldn't call it stealing, but I wouldn't take it.

Yin, unless someone is nearby to claim said coinage, to my thinking, that money was abandoned. Finders keepers. 

I have been wondering all my life who stole the change I dropped.

Please send me a cashier's check for $100 immediately.

But seriously, in any area that has constant public access, I don't see how you could make a case for that being stealing unless you saw someone drop it, picked it up, and chose not to call out to the person and attempt to return it.

Personally, I found a one hundred dollar bill about 40 years ago in the parking lot of a large indoor mall.  I figure that got me so far ahead of the game; since then, I don't even pick up my own change when I drop it.  (Quarters are a possible exception---they are still useful for vending machines.).