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I had a question for which I put $500$ points in a bounty. The bounty wasn't taken by anyone. I deleted the question just now and it seems that I got the points back. At least my rep. went up pretty much by the amount of that bounty for no reason.

Was that what happened? Is that supposed to happen?

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Q: Do I get the reputation back when question I placed bounty that was already awarded is being deleted?

A: Yes. The change is not immediate like other reputation changes but the reputation points are given back. Source - marked status-bydesign is official enough. If the question is undeleted, the reputation is reduced again.

From How does the bounty system work?

I think it's a mistake on SE developers' part to refund bounty in such cases. Abuse potential aside, it gives users an incentive to delete perfectly good questions.

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    $\begingroup$ Yes, I also felt it is the wrong thing to happen. $\endgroup$
    – OR.
    Jul 27, 2013 at 23:49
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    $\begingroup$ Of course, the incentive only applies when one sets a bounty on one's own question. For others' questions, refunding would be justifiable -- I would even say it's the correct course of action. $\endgroup$
    – Lord_Farin
    Jul 29, 2013 at 8:49
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    $\begingroup$ @Lord I'm not sure about that. If this behavior gets widely known, we'll see more of "Thanks for putting 500 bounty on my question. Too bad it did not work. I'm deleting the question to return the points to you." Or even "the bounty is going to expire - why don't you delete the question and repost it, I'll add new bounty there". $\endgroup$
    – 40 votes
    Jul 29, 2013 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ "Abuse potential aside, it gives users an incentive to delete perfectly good questions." I think this is not really a problem because you can delete the good question (with bounty), so you can get your points back and then repost again the good question but this time, to leave it as it is. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Nov 8, 2019 at 21:51

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