I'm torn on the issue of lost discs. The way I do it is if I find one I'll try and return it if theres a number, or if I find one numberless and then hear someone @ league mention losing it. I didn't always do this(especially my first few months) but now that I have a set bag, many broken in discs and fav's, I know how horrible it is to lose a piece of your game. HOWEVER, if I go into the stank, nasty, infectious disease ridden pond on my local course after one of my favorite discs and I find yours, I'm going to expect more than a kind word in return. If its in the pond odds are you knew where it was and decided it wasn't worth going in after. If someone finds one of mine, regardless of where they find it, I'm going to give them a disc in return. Its become a policy of mine, plus I think that giving someone a disc in return increases my odds of getting more of my lost discs back in the future.
As for the story at the begining of thread about boots in asses, if someone approached me like that I'd be apt to try and break the disc in two and throw it at you. You talk about courtesy respect and good karma, then practice what you preach. I've seen discs I lost flying aound my course, and walked up and asked for them back. I've had guys not give them back too, oh well. I'll file them in my memory under d for douchebag and move on. Basically I think that more courtesy on our part as experienced disc golfers toward the new folk and the casual players will go much furthur toward getting our discs returned than the tough guy attitude I hear about all the time.