I watched an excellent short film the other day which presented the audience

I watched an excellent short film the other day which presented the audience

I watched an excellent short film the other day which presented the audience with what I thought was an interesting moral problem. I won't give away the title in fear of anyone googling it and finding a 'spoiler', but there is a scene in which a paramedic attends to the body of a man who has just been killed. The paramedic had earlier in the evening bought a lottery ticket and, after seeing the draw, found out that she did not win the prize money. In the dead man's hand she finds a winning lottery ticket. We know from earlier in the film that the dead man had no relatives or friends. Since he is dead, and so the money is no good to him and there is no one inherit it, and: a) since the paramedic herself had as good a chance of winning the lottery as the dead man did (they each bought one ticket); b) since he won the lottery not through any more effort than she put into the contest nor through any talent or qualities of his own but simply through chance - is it morally wrong for her to take his ticket and claim the money as her own? It is theft since she is taking something that's not hers, but what harm is really done by her taking the ticket?

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