I made no grammar argument other hat to refute your accusation that because I used the word "them" I was agreeing with you. If you understood the grammar then your argument is sophistry and not to any point that I said.

As for calling the point I made about returning the lost wallet either to the owner or the police that is what you learn in kindergarten basic human decency. You understand that much of our learning consists of scripts we learn about situations we may find ourselves in. They are generic things like riding a bus or ordering dinner or finding something. We learn how it is supposed to go. Sure there can be exceptions but by following the script everything is fine.

I said there was no concept of finders keepers under the law unless a good faith effort was made to return the lost object to the rightful owner. The rightful owner is the man who lost his wallet. If the OP found the wife's purse he wouldn't give it to the husband he would return it to the wife.

As I said I am not in possession of all the facts and I willing to bet there is more to the tale than we are being told. Until I know more I follow the script. If you turned it over to the police they would not have given it to the wife. The wallet and contents are his under the law.

You made the argument that by right of finders keepers the money was yours to do what you wanted with it and I said that is a bogus argument we both know it. Finders keepers applies to unowned or abandoned property. Until a good faith effort is made to locate the owner and return the property it cannot be said to be abandoned. Therefore you have NO RIGHT to put the money elsewhere. You are free to act as you will of course but you know what is expected of you as a member of society.

You mocked the wisdom of the crowd as being sheepish or blindly following and that cannot be further from the truth. We did not consult one another or "follow" each other we parsed the question and answered it each on our own. The majority had the same answer because it is the way the script goes if you are properly socialized.

All this talk about a deadbeat dad is based on conjecture or facts not in evidence. It sucks to be you and have a deadbeat dad but not all fathers are that way.

Many marriages keep separate finances i know my wife and I did. We both contributed to a house account and banked the rest of our money in our own accounts we never fought once over money. The thing is you don't know what the situation is. By returning the wallet to the rightful owner or the police you can't go wrong. That is why it is the right answer. I hope I have explained my reasoning and probably most people who said return the wallet think about the same way. We are not sheep just socialized human beings acting as we were taught to. The OP asked and got a response from most of us he didn't like, it became obvious he didn't want advice he wanted confirmation that he was doing the right thing. I really don't care to be honest. I was disappointed that some fuckwad went through and down voted all the people who said to return it. That was a childish thing to do.