Today's ethical dilemma: Is taking something from the lost & found that isn't yours REALLY stealing?

EXAMPLE! Let's say... and I'm totally just pulling this example (which has absolutely NO basis in reality) out of my ass…Β that someone paid $15 bucks for a pair of swimming goggles, and promptly lost them—possibly at the public swimming pool. Let's also say that this same not-actually-a-real-person person goes back to the swimming pool, and asks if anyone has turned in the missing goggles. The completely hypothetical (and totally hot) swimming pool person says, "Hmm... I dunno, let's check," and pulls out a HUGE (again hypothetical) Tupperware tub filled with maybe 50-100 swimming goggles, and then asks the (not a real) person to describe them. The not-a-real person says, "There they are!" picking out a set of obviously superior goggles to the ones he/she originally purchased and lost. The hypothetical person then takes them, and hypothetically goes swimming.

ON A SCALE OF ONE-TO-TEN (TEN BEING MOST UNETHICAL), HOW UNETHICAL WAS THIS PERSON?

You are invited to discuss the varying ethicalities of this non-existing person's totally hypothetical course of action in the comments below.

Goggles
  • Goggles