It's why if I get incorrect change at a store I take it back. Or if the ATM gave me more money than I asked for, I'd return it. I'd feel awful about keeping something that wasn't mine. Hazel is an honest, decent person, so it never occurred to me that she'd feel differently.
IMHO, if one keeps something that one knows isn't theirs, it's stealing.
Just MHO.
The problem with that analogy is that for you to keep the money means that someone else had to lose it. In this case no one's arguing that Hazel should keep the award and that you shouldn't receive one. Two can exist without diminishing the other.
I can't speak for Hazel, but I'd be rather upset to win something and later have it taken away. (In fact, many of us live in fear of exactly that happening; it's called
"Impostor Syndrome" <g>) When that happened in the Olympics back in... 2002?... there was an international uproar. Not to compare a small fanwriting contest to the Olympics
, but taking away someone's award just seems to create hurt feelings that could very easily be avoided. They aren't a limited commodity, and no one is "stealing" anything.
Again, Hazel may feel differently and all this may be moot. But there are my 2 cents.
Kaylle
