A Little Foggy On The "Good Turn" Concept

Recently I heard a story on NPR about Scouts about which I have ambivalent feeling. According to this report, a thief (not the Boy Scout) stole a wallet, removed the money, and abandoned it. The thief, who obviously was not a particularly competent thief, did not check the other compartments, in which there was cash in excess of the easily accessible amount. The aforementioned Boy Scout found the wallet and returned it to the owner. I have no issue with that sort of honesty; what bothers me is his acceptance of the $100 reward, which is against the Scout code.

The story of how the Boy Scouts were established in the United States goes as follows: American publishers W.D. Boyce was on a business trip to London when he became lost in the "fog" (since we would now call it smog) and recieved help from a Scout, who refused the tip which Boyce offered. Although the legend differs from the truth (the truth of fact and the truth of legend serve different purposes), the fundamental point remains the same: Boyce was impressed by the boy's refusal of the tip and his willingness to help without promise of monetary compensation. One of the founding policies of the Boy Scouts of America was that one should do good deeds for their own sake, not for compensation. I do not believe in the either/or model of motivation, so I do concede that it is possible to do something because it is the right thing to do and recieve money, but the Boy Scouts of America, in order to prevent any confusion on the motivation of their members, requires that Boy Scouts not accept rewards. This is especially true when members are in uniform.


I shall relate something which occurred a bit more recently, so that my readers do not think that this policy is some sort of "rotten borough". When the Troop was on a recent camping trip (the SRH, for those in the know), one of the boys discovered a cell phone dropped on the trail. We called the number and arranged to meet the relieved owner in the parking lot of a certain supermarket chain. When we had finished the hike and were returning home, we stopped at the aforementioned parking lot and waited a short while. The owner eventually arrived and tried to reward us, and we found it somewhat difficult to convince him that we could not take the reward - hence my lack of surprise at the approving tone of the recent news story and its discrepancy from BSA policy.