Why I Turned Down a Million-Dollar Check

When Erik Elvin Gabriel from the U.S. unexpectedly found a check for a million dollars seemingly meant for him from Bank of America, it took him more than a few moments to grasp what had happened.

Gabriel collected the check from his bank, knowing he was supposed to receive a specific check, but for a moment, he 'forgot' to look at the amount or didn't notice the zeros after the one.

"When I showed it to my wife, we both freaked out," he recalls. "We jumped up and down with joy, nearly lost our minds. We immediately thought about what to do with it, and had so many plans, like maybe stopping work for a few years."

But then Erik reconsidered whether he should keep the check, even though it was clear to him it wasn't really meant for him. "I told myself, 'Yes, I want this,' but knew it didn't belong to me," he wrote on his Facebook page. "Morality wouldn't allow me to go through with it," he concluded.

When he went to the bank and showed the check to the clerks, the surprise hit him again. "They just said 'Oops, it's really our mistake.' It surprised me because many people had signed off on the check before it reached me, but I was glad to be doing the right thing."