Right, but Wrong?

If you have to go, go now, folks, I think this'll be a long one. It might even be a 2-parter! The past couple of weeks, I've had several conversations with different people about different people, but the same basic concept. A person who does something good, right, worthy of praise, but for reasons that are less than noble. Generally these conversations take the form of "You know he only did <good deed> because <reason>. " I tend to agree, yes, isn't it wrong that someone would do that for selfish, self-serving reason. But my question for you, my loyal, moral friends, family and fans, is - is it? If the good deed gets done, the beneficiary is benefited and the world is a little bit nicer, does it matter why? Let's look at totally made up examples, conglomerating (yes, I know that's not a word) all the folks recently brought to my attention. Hannah is a very nice older lady who never had kids of her own and volunteers with difficult children. You know, the one everyone else has thrown up their hands and walked away from. She's got an excellent track record of helping future felons become charming, well-behaved kiddies. But she doesn't do it for the kids. Yes, she learns to love them, gets to know them and their lives and their family and she does care, but really, she does it because of the payoff - local organizations recognize her and give her plaques and things at special dinners in her honor. She gets her picture in the paper. People always say things like "You're such a wonderful person; those kids are lucky to have you!" Parents, teachers and community leaders applaud her. And she digs it. When you talk to her, she always manages to drop a mention of something she's given up for her work or how much time she's put in, or how one of her kids told her "how I saved them from a life of crime - or worse!" Because she knows you'll tell her again how wonderful she is. So - what do you think? The kids are still reached, no one else wanted to do it, and Hannah gets her glory, which is what she really wanted. Is it wrong? Big companies donate big dollars - we all know it's for positive PR and a nice tax break, but does that mean the charities appreciate the money less? If it goes toward curing cancer or housing the homeless, doesn't that make it a great thing, even if it was given with a different, calculated purpose? One more: Frank has a crush on Mabel, but she's into "good guys" and he's a basically selfish dude. He finds out she's going to spend Saturday at Habitat for Humanity, so he buys new "old" sweats, signs up and finds his hammer. They spend a lovely day building a house and she agrees to go out with him because even though he didn't really lie, he led her to believe this is the sort of thing he does all the time. So, the work, good though it was - that's sort of a lie. It makes him a little dishonest - BUT - what if he has to keep it up to keep Mabel? Now he's doing one Saturday a month, for whatever reason - isn't that laudable? What if because of that he starts to really enjoy it, and even after Mabel ditches his sorry butt, he keeps volunteering? So what do you say? Right action, wrong motive, does it matter? Please comment, I'm interested to see what people think. And yup, I think this'll be a 2-parter, with some more of my thoughts about this, as it percolates.