Leadership Thought: What Would You Do If You Found $43,000 in a Couch You Had Purchased?

Dear Friend

I had breakfast last week with Dave Hinton, a friend who volunteers his time with Habitat for Humanity. He told me the following story.

A Michigan man made a shocking discovery inside a couch he purchased from a thrift store for just $35: an extra $43,000.

Howard Kirby purchased a couch from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Owosso only to discover it came with the wad of cash inside one of the cushions, the store manager told ABC News on Saturday.

Kirby decided to return the money to the couch's owner.

"He could use it. … He has needs, but he said he just felt this prompting from God that said, 'This isn't yours,'" store manager Rick Merling said.

Howard Kirby found $43,000 in a cushion of a couch he purchased from a thrift store in Owosso, Michigan.

Kirby met with the couch's original owners on Thursday to return the money. The store had called the family to say that Kirby found something "they're gonna want back."

"It was very, very shocking to them," Merling said.

The couch belonged to the grandfather of the family, who died about a year ago, according to Merling. The family called the thrift store to ask them to pick the couch up and left their contact information.

"I think they were hoping there might be some pictures. They would have never dreamed that it was money," he said.

While Merling said the store often hears from people who discover items left behind, Kirby, who could not be reached by ABC News, was the first to actually return something.

"He's happy that he's got a couch," Merling said.

"Someone said, 'Are you gonna give the cushion back?' And he said, 'No, that's a $43,000 cushion.'"

My friend personally told me 'the rest of the story.'

Habitat was so impressed with the man’s integrity that, when they discovered Merling’s need for a new roof, they quickly mobilized their volunteers to replace his leaking roof with a new one.

Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest examples of integrity who ever lived. He wrote, “I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”

“Real success does not compromise personal integrity. If you are not a success by God’s standards, you have not achieved true success.”  

These words from the Life Application Bible are commentary on Proverbs 11:3,5 where we read “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.”

Good words for us to remember in an era where people of integrity seem harder to find than a two-dollar bill. 

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom