Tootsie Roll Can

Our youngest grandchild showed me some pennies he had in his pocket.  “Are those your pennies?”  He shook his head  no, “I found them.”

“Ah”, I said,” that’s  God’s money!  If the money isn’t yours and you don’t know who it belongs to, we have a special place for that money—the Tootsie Roll Can I keep in the laundry room. That money goes to charity or church because we don’t know whose money it is."  He dutifully put the money in the Tootsie Roll Bank.

What I never told anyone was the back story to “God’s money”.  My mother was a beautician and had lots of coins from tips.  Of course I was taught that taking money out of her wallet was stealing, but what about money she’d just thrown in the bottom of her purse?  I had found a loop-hole!  If I wanted to go to the corner market to buy some candy, I’d just go to Mom’s purse, root around until I found some loose change, or I’d go to  her room to see if some change had fallen out of her purse.  With coins in my hand, off I’d go.

After awhile, my mother caught on and asked me where I was getting the money. 

 “I found it.”  

“Did you find it in my wallet?”  

“No, that would be stealing”

“Where did you find it?”

“On the floor”

“Is that your money”

“No”

“Well, if you found that money, it’s not yours. And if you don’t know who it belongs to, then it is God’s money and you can put it in the offering at Sunday School.”

When I saw my own children following in the footsteps of their loop-hole-finding-mother, I grabbed a bank—a Tootsie Roll can—and declared that we would put “found” money in that.  So, if they left a dollar in their pants when I did laundry, it would go in that can which sits in my laundry room.  

I continue this tradition today.  If I find money on a sidewalk or in a parking lot, it’s God’s money.  If I find it in the washing machine, it’s God’s money.  If I find money in the bottom of my purse or in the car, it’s God’s money.  I am happy to pass that tradition on to my grandchildren.