On Friday, I had blood drawn to get some lab work done. After the nurse finished, she tossed the used hypodermic needle into a plastic bin with all the others.
I looked in. The bin was nearly full, nothing but used needles.
Then the nurse said the strangest thing. “If there was a million dollars at the bottom of that bucket, would you put your hand in and grab it?”
Shudder. No. No I would not. I told her so.
“Really? Not even for a million dollars?”
Bear in mind, I’m a needlephobe, so I’m pretty impressed with myself already for having my blood drawn and not passing out. But all I said was, “It’s probably contaminated, isn’t it?”
“Oh, come on,” she said. “What are the odds you’re going to hit that one needle that’s contaminated?”
I confess, I had not heard this sentiment voiced by a nurse before.
“Would you do it?” I asked.
“Sure!” she said. “I’m fifty years old, I’m going to die soon anyway.”
I expressed my belief that the typical fifty-year-old is not likely to die soon. She just laughed.
I sometimes think these brief moments of strangeness and humor are part of the reason we’re alive.
Brian D. Buckley 
I am a lawyer: my immediate thought was that the stated conditions do not rule out using accessible tools (forceps, &c.) to clear away the needles before I reach for the money.
Why this was marked as spam, I have no idea. Akismet must be having a bad day.
But if you’ve got a pair of forceps and a hankering for a million dollars, swing by Ohio sometime. š
Several of my comments failed to display yesterday, so it seems it was something about me rather than an overly strict word list.
āIām fifty years old, Iām going to die soon anyway.ā
Well there’s an optimist if I ever heard one!
I know, right? Talk about seeing the needle bucket half-empty…
I know I’m a bit late to this comment but I know of instances that people go through those boxes to find syringes with just a little bit of narcotic left and inject themselves. Also people pull out used medicated patches and lick/chew them to absorb the remaining narcotic.
So, maybe not for a million dollars, but people do it more frequently than you think.
Yeesh…flashbacks from Requiem for a Dream now…