What happens
Chester A. Riley, a war worker in California, takes eighty-five cents in nickels from a pay station telephone and finds his conscience troubling him. Riley struggles with guilt as he hears an inner voice urging him to return the money, and he worries about what his wife Peg and son Junior will think. He tries to make amends by going back to the phone booth, but suspicious police and the phone company complicate his plan. The Life of Riley is a comedy series first heard in the 1940s, and this episode, dated January 21, 1945, stars William Bendix as Riley.
California, a war-time city where Riley works, including Oily Oscar's cigar store and its pay station telephone, and the Riley home.
Characters: Chester A. Riley, Peg, Junior, Waldo Benny, Conscience, Judge Sludge, Al
Listen for: Riley's inner conscience debating him about keeping the nickels, and his attempts to return the money from the phone booth.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.