That was the most money I ever found in my entire life. Actually, that's not true. It's the most I ever found that I kept. Some years back I found a wallet on the ground right outside the door of a Blockbuster video store. I opened the wallet and there was $267 inside, mostly $20 bills. I was really excited about that until I took a look at the guy's ID and saw that he was a priest. Bummer!
It's a little different when you find just a wad of money and there is nobody around, but when you know who the money belongs to, and on top of that it's a priest, then that's where I have to draw the line. I was able to track him down and return his wallet, cash intact. He wanted to give me a $20 reward, but I told him to say a prayer for me instead and we'll call it even :)
As far as the money I found in the bathroom, I think what must have happened is the guy probably had the money in his hands and put it down to flush and he must have been in a huge hurry and just walked away and left it there.
Either that or I was part of some study where they wanted to see how many people would turn the money in and how many would pocket it. Seems like they would have used a much lower amount of money for something of that nature, though. I didn't really think about it at the time because I was actually struggling financially and I was just really grateful I found the money and there was nobody around that tried to claim it.
Other than those two instances, the most money I've ever found is a $10 bill in the parking lot of a CVS. I also found a $5 bill underneath the seat of a public bus once. I guess I've found more money than most. Once I saw a news story about a guy who left an envelope containing $6000 on the roof of his car and then drove away. A guy who was sitting in the parking lot saw the whole thing and got the guys license plate and turned the money in to the local police and they contacted the guy and gave it back to him. Now that's what I call an honest person. Can you imagine finding $6000 free and clear and returning it? Turns out it was tuition money for the guy to send his daughter to some technical school.
Heck, those are some stories. I've been on the losing side.
When I lived in Hawaii I would metal detect along Waikiki beach. One morning a guy came up to me and said that he lost his wedding ring, I ask him to show me whereabouts it dropped. spent a few hours searching and found it! I went up to his hotel room and they gave me a $100 reward. I didn't want to put it in my wet pouch, so I placed it under my baseball cap. Well, when I got back to my car I took my cap off and no $100 bill! Oh well, guess it fell out somewhere along the way.
You always hear about the stories about someone returning large sums of cash, but I imagine they are the exception - not the rule. All I know is that if I had thousands on me, then I am holding that much money tight to my body.