And finally…finder is a weeper - and a criminal

However, as one women found out this week, it is actually a legal one.

Nicole Bailey, a 23-year-old from Blurton, Staffordshire has been taken to court after putting a £20 note she found on a shop floor into her purse.

And people have been warned that they could also find themselves faced with similar theft charges if they pick up cash that has been dropped by someone else.

Ms Bailey has been ordered to pay £175 in court costs and charges, as well as receiving a six-month conditional discharge after picking up the note that was left behind by a customer who withdrew it from a One Stop convenience store.

She didn’t know who the money belonged to and left the store but was caught by CCTV and then charged by police after the man who withdrew the cash realised he had lost it and complained to staff at the store, the local Stoke Sentinel newspaper reports.

Magistrates at North Staffordshire Justice Centre heard the cash had been withdrawn shortly before it was pocketed by Bailey at the shop in Blurton, Staffordshire.

Prosecutor Ruth Bentley said: “Staff checked the CCTV which showed a female pick up the £20 note from a display in the store.

“The manager recognised the woman, who was a regular customer.”

Police invited Bailey to a voluntary interview, and after initially denying taking the money, admitted the pocketing it after seeing CCTV footage.

Bailey, who has no previous convictions, went on to plead guilty to theft.

Simon Dykes, mitigating, said the matter ought to have been dealt with by a police caution out of court.

He said: “She didn’t know who the money belonged to. People don’t realise picking up something you have found amounts to a theft. She has been quite naive in doing so.”

Magistrates handed Bailey a six-month conditional discharge, meaning she will face no punishment if she remains out of trouble for the next six months.

Staffordshire Police Chief Inspector Karen Stevenson said the definition of theft was “the dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it”.

She said: “We would actively encourage any member of the public who picks up money that has been dropped to be honest and do the right thing by taking all reasonable steps to try and find the owner.”