--- title: Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside description: Honesty really is the best policy. canonical: https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-02T19:37:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:08.830Z og:title: Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside og:description: Honesty really is the best policy. og:url: https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside twitter:description: Honesty really is the best policy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Aug 2, 2014 7:37 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Aug 2, 2014 7:37 PM UTC If the movie _Fargo_ is to be believed, North Dakotans are a special bunch—warm and kind, with a funny accent and a can-do attitude. From Fargo again comes a heartwarming story, this time with a less gruesome ending. A woman was out running errands with her daughter, the Associated Press [reports](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FWALLET%5FLESSON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-01-20-49-34), when she found a wallet with $1,000 inside. The woman, Sadie Hill, opted to return the wallet to J. Pat Wiggington to set a good example for her daughter, Adalee. As the AP notes, Hill is a single mother who works two jobs, and could have used the money: --- > “” --- Initially, Wigginton didn’t get their names, but said that he appreciated their honesty; with the help of a local-interest TV [story](http://www.wday.com/content/fargo-mom-returns-wallet-1000-inside), however, he found Hill and her daughter and sent them a $200 gift card for this year’s back-to-school shopping. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/"},"headline":"Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside","datePublished":"2014-08-02T19:37:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:08.830Z","description":"What would you have done?","url":"https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Fargo"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3074709/mom-wallet/","name":"Mom Finds and Returns Wallet with $1,000 Inside"}}]}] ```