by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 27/97) - After returning home from grocery shopping at the Northern Store, you find you've been given $20 too much change.

What do you do?

That was one of three questions we posed to NWT residents to find out how they deal with moral dilemmas.

"I don't know," responded Pelly Bay's Joseph Kayaksak to the $20 question. "That's a tough one."

It wasn't tough for Brandy Kanayuk from Pond Inlet and Wha Ti's Angel Jeremick'ca lived up to her name. "Simple," said Jeremick'ca. "Just go back and give it back."

Kanayuk said she, too, would return the cash. Asked if she would think, just for a moment, of keeping it, Kanayuk said, "No, I wouldn't dream of doing that."

Northern Store cashiers in Pelly Bay will be double checking the change they give to Edward Inutuinak. He said he would pocket the cash.

Another question dealt with what people would want others to do.

Someone from the community is travelling on the land. They aren't sure they have enough gas to get home, when they come by your cabin, where you have gas stored for a trip you've planned.

Would you want them to take the gas?

"If they see gas out there, they'll take it," said Inutuinak. "I wouldn't mind as long as they told me."

Neither would Cyril Malla of Arviat. "But not all of it. Most of the hunters tell what they took."

Lillian Simik of Chesterfield Inlet agreed she would want the person to help themselves. "I wouldn't want anyone stuck out on the land without anyone knowing," she said. "What if they had no radio? I would want them to get home."

Jeremick'ca said she found herself in a similar situation this summer, and said she would have no problem returning the favor.

OK, what if, on the sea lift or through the mail, you got a large package you weren't expecting? You open it and find, along with a beautiful new gun you really need, a slip of paper with the name of the person who ordered the gun.

Malla said resolving that problem would require a phone call.

"I would call the person it was supposed to go to and ask if they had received the rifle yet. If they had, I would keep it. If they had not, I would give it to them."

Jeremick'ca said she would give it to its rightful owner, if the owner also lived in Wha Ti, or return it to the post office.

Kanayuk said she's not in the postal business. "I'd return it to where I'd picked up the package, not to the person it was supposed to go to."