Crypto Cleveland

Holiday Bonus

So today I went downtown to talk to a former professor but he wasn’t in his office.

This professor has a consulting business where he hires himself out as an expert witness in class action lawsuits, and as one of my side jobs I did a brief stint condensing depositions for him… Either because of that, or just because he likes me he sent me a check last week for a hundred dollars.

I presume it was intended as a holiday bonus, but it was really unexpected and out of the blue so I wanted to ask him about it and thank him in person.  Of course because he wasn’t in his office, I stuffed the check back in my pocket and went for a walk, and at some point as I was walking around it must have fallen out.

Now I have a bit of a conundrum.  Although I feel like an idiot for losing it, I can’t very well be upset because I wasn’t counting on the bonus in the first place.   I can’t really thank him for a check I’m not going to cash, nor can I very well ask him to write me a new one because that makes me look both ingrateful and irresponsible.

My natural inclination would be to just ignore it and pretend I never got a check in the first place, but that too seems a bit childish.

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Update: I decided the appropriate way to handle this situation was to call him on the phone and ask him to cancel the check and donate the money to charity.  That way I look pround and noble instead of greedy and stupid.