> At a public water fountain, it is customary for people to toss in coins and make a wish. Everyone realizes that it's superstition--they don't actually think it will make their wish come true. They simply do it for fun.
>

How can you speak for everyone?


> Basically, I reached in and took the quarters I saw. I told my father and he said it was wrong of me to do so, that I was taking something that did not belong to me.
>

I think your father is right. That's not your money and you should not have taken it.


> I immediately noted to him that the city would have to hire someone to clean the fountain otherwise, and the wages would cost more than was earned through the fountain. I also commented that the fountain was an antique, and the small drains could easily be clogged, or that the upper basins could easily be chipped. After I said so, though, I wondered if I was just rationalizing.
>

Yes, I think you are rationalizing. You don't know how much wages would be paid to someone cleaning the fountain, nor how much money would be made from cleaning the fountain. Unless you're picking up coins from over the drains, you're not preventing the drains from being blocked. And taking coins from the fountain certainly won't prevent the basins from being chipped by coins that have already been thrown.


So, I don't think it was the right thing to do.