But not for me...

I might not be morally bankrupt-- in fact, I might even be running a surplus of 'moral capital.' You see, I'm a pretty nice guy when it comes down to it. But I definitely qualify as "cash poor." That's student life for ya.

Which brings me to this story (courtesy of the elusive Mil Apodos), which definitely proves that instant karma isn't going to get me.

On a whim, U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg pulled into a gas station in Washington this week and bought $20 worth of Powerball tickets. As he was leaving, a clerk ran after him because he had left one of the tickets behind.

"She was a very pleasant young woman; she might have kept it and for all I know it might have been the winning ticket," he said in a telephone news conference.

Gregg collected a check for $853,492 from the Powerball Lottery on Thursday.

According to his latest financial disclosure form, Gregg has between $1.5 million and $6.2 million in stocks and other major investments.

What will he do with the lottery money?

"Whatever my wife tells me what to do with it?" he joked, saying he would turn the winnings over to the Hugh Gregg Foundation, which supports New Hampshire charities and is named after Gregg's late father, a former governor of New Hampshire.

At least in this case the lottery will actually help the needy, instead of being a sneaky regressive tax....