Heck, those are some stories. I've been on the losing side.

When I lived in Hawaii I would metal detect along Waikiki beach. One morning a guy came up to me and said that he lost his wedding ring, I ask him to show me whereabouts it dropped. spent a few hours searching and found it! I went up to his hotel room and they gave me a $100 reward. I didn't want to put it in my wet pouch, so I placed it under my baseball cap. Well, when I got back to my car I took my cap off and no $100 bill! Oh well, guess it fell out somewhere along the way.

You always hear about the stories about someone returning large sums of cash, but I imagine they are the exception - not the rule. All I know is that if I had thousands on me, then I am holding that much money tight to my body.