Posted on 09/12/2024 8:56:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
What are the most (and least) honest cities in the world? Reader's Digest conducted a global, social experiment to find out.
In each, we put a name with a cellphone number, a family photo, coupons, and business cards, plus the equivalent of $50. We “dropped” 12 wallets in each of the 16 cities we selected, leaving them in parks, near shopping malls, and on sidewalks. Then we watched to see what would happen.
Wallets returned: 11 out of 12. Lasse Luomakoski, a 27-year-old businessman, found our wallet downtown. “Finns are naturally honest,” he said. “We are a small, quiet, closely-knit community. We have little corruption, and we don’t even run red lights.” In the working-class area of Kallio, a couple in their sixties said, “Of course we returned the wallet. Honesty is an inner conviction.”
Wallets returned: 9 out of 12. Rahul Rai, a 27-year-old video editor, said, “My conscience wouldn’t let me do anything wrong. A wallet is a big thing with many important documents [in it].” Vaishali Mhaskar, a mother of two, returned a wallet left in the post office. “I teach my children to be honest, just like my parents taught me,” she said. Later that day, three young adults found our wallet and called us immediately.
Wallets returned: 8 out of 12. Seventeen-year-old Regina Györfi called the cellphone number included in one of our wallets immediately after finding it a shopping mall. “I remember being in a car, when my dad noticed a wallet by the side of the road,” she said. “When we reached the owner he was very grateful: Without the papers in the wallet he would have had to postpone his wedding which was to take place the very same day!” However, a woman in her early sixties opened the wallet, and then entered a nearby building. We never heard from her.
Wallets returned: 8 out of 12. Richard Hamilton, a 36-year-old government worker from Brooklyn, found a wallet near City Hall and reunited it with us. “Everyone says New Yorkers are unfriendly but they’re really quite a nice people,” he said. “I think you’d be very surprised to see how many New Yorkers would actually return [a wallet].” Not all New Yorkers were so honest: we watched a man in his twenties take money from the wallet to buy cigarettes at a convenience store. However, one of two 17-year-olds who found the billfold explained her motivation to get in touch: “I flipped through all the papers and saw the family photo and thought, ‘Aw, he has two kids. We have to give this back.'” Another local told us, “It’s so easy to be cynical. But especially after 9/11, that instilled companionship in everyone.”
Wallets returned: 7 out of 12. Near the city’s downtown zoo, Eduard Anitpin, an officer of Emergency Situations, handed our reporter’s lost wallet to a security guard. “I am an officer and I am bound by an officer’s ethical code,” he said. “My parents raised me as an honest and decent man.” Later, another do-gooder said, “I am convinced that people should help one another, and if I can make someone a little happier, I will.”
Wallets returned: 7 out of 12. Some people who found the wallet were more moved by the euros inside than the photos we planted. But Julius Maarleveld spotted the lost wallet and entered a nearby liquor store. Our reporter followed, prompting Maarleveld to speak up: “Are you here for the wallet? If so, [the clerk] is just calling… My wife once lost her wallet. It was found and returned. Isn’t honesty wonderful?” Angelique Monsieurs, 42, noticed our reporter drop the wallet on her way into a supermarket and waited for her to exit to reunite wallet and owner. These are the healthiest cities in America.
Wallets returned: 6 out of 12. Seyran Coban, a teacher in training, got to the wallet at the same time as a young man but refused to let him have it. “I didn’t trust that boy. People have often treated me with honesty, and if I do the same, that’s what I’ll get in return,” she said. Abel Ben Salem, 46, told reporters he returned the wallet because, “I saw the photo of the mother with her child. Whatever else is important, a photo like that means something to the owner.” Yet a man in his early forties quickly grabbed the wallet, put it in his bag, then spent ten minutes making call after call on his phone—none to us. Here are 10 things you should do immediately if you lose your wallet.
Wallets returned: 6 out of 12. We asked Manca Smolej, a 21-year-old student, whether she considered taking the money when she found our wallet. “No!” she replied. “My parents taught me how important being honest is. Once I lost an entire bag, but I got everything back. So, I know what it feels like.” A man in his early fifties picked up our billfold, started to dial his phone but then stopped, took the wallet, and drove off in an expensive car.
Wallets returned: 5 out of 12. Ursula Smist, 35, who is originally from Poland, retrieved our wallet and handed it over to her boss. “If you find money, you can’t assume it belongs to a rich man,” her manager said. “It might be the last bit of money a mother has to feed her family.” Here are 9 powerful ways to give to charity without breaking the bank.
Wallets returned: 5 out of 12. Biotechnologist Marlena Kamínska, 28, picked up our wallet and hopped on the bus. Three hours later she called us after talking with coworkers. “There were those who advised me not to bother looking for the owner,” she said. “But I thought that someone might badly need that money.” As for the other seven wallets, they were all taken by women whom we never saw again.
Wallets returned: 4 out of 12. Sonia Parvan, a 20-year-old student [right, with Cristina Topa], found our wallet and tracked us down. “I know how it feels to lose your wallet. My mother lost it once and didn’t get it back,” she said. We watched another young woman pick up one of our wallets, ask two passersby if it was theirs, then examine the contents closely and place it in her pocket. We didn’t hear from her.
Wallets returned: 4 out of 12. In a commercial area, a woman in her late twenties returned our wallet—without any money. But 73-year-old Delma Monteiro Brandāo handed one back after finding it while picking up her granddaughter at school. “This is not mine!” she said. “In my teens, I picked up a magazine in a department store and left without paying. When my mother found out, she told me this behavior was unacceptable.”
Wallets returned: 4 out of 12. Jeanette Baum, a 38-year-old music teacher, discovered our wallet and sent email and texts to our reporter after calls didn’t go through. “I know what it’s like to lose something,” she said. “The ‘not knowing’ afterwards is terrible. That’s why I responded as fast as I could.” Meanwhile, a tram driver in his early fifties pocketed the wallet, despite the fact that the transit company runs the city’s lost and found office.
Wallets returned: 3 out of 12. Petra Samcová recovered our reporter’s wallet and didn’t think twice about returning it. “It’s something you simply should do naturally,” she said. Not so two young teenagers walking in a suburban housing estate on the outskirts of Prague, who put the wallet in a knapsack and left in a very good mood. These are the least healthy cities in America.
Wallets returned: 2 out of 12. Beatriz Lopez, a 22-year-old student, found our wallet in an upscale downtown area with her friend Lena Jansen, also 22. “We only wanted to give it back,” she said. Jansen told reporters, “I couldn’t keep a purse that wasn’t mine.”
Wallets returned: 1 out of 12. A couple in their sixties spotted our wallet and immediately called us. Interestingly, our reporter learned that the two weren’t from Lisbon at all—they were visiting from Holland. The remaining eleven wallets were taken, money and all. Here are 8 things you should never, ever keep in your wallet.
Of the 192 wallets dropped, 90 were returned—47 percent. As we looked over our results we found that age is no predictor of whether a person is going to be honest or dishonest; young and old both kept or returned wallets; male and female were unpredictable; and comparative wealth seemed no guarantee of honesty. There are honest and dishonest people everywhere.
Everybody who returned the wallet could imagine how the person missing the wallet would feel. Some people had a sense of pride in being an honest person. But they all had that basic empathy.
“Finns are naturally honest,” he said. “We are a small, quiet, closely-knit community. We have little corruption, and we don’t even run red lights.”
The type of nice, clean, boring country I’d love to live in. Don’t need the “vibrancy” of gunshot sounds, rap music, drugged out bums lying and shitting on the streets, constant racial upheavals...
If I want “excitement” I’ll go visit it somewhere else... and then come home.
It does make me wonder though - rather than comparing major cities, what about comparing them to small towns in various countries? I suspect the overall return rate would be much higher in the latter. Suburbs I suspect would be no better than inner cities, and maybe worse.
Left my wallet on the check out stand in a small market while visiting Santa Barbara, CA. Across the street from a baseball park where some homeless hung out.
Traced back to the place where I probably left it. The store manager looked at the video. Saw the guy behind me put his wallet on top of mine and walk out. Manager knew who the guy was. He was one of the homeless guys in the park. Store manager and I confronted the guy while perp was in the park. Guy finally gave up the wallet...intact...but no money (was 62 bucks). Cops were notified but never showed up.(Other more pressing matters).
DMV rep. Laughed when I told her I wanted a new numbers Drivers license.
Later on,SB cops told me the guy was habitual criminal and wanted me to testify. Cops couldn’t guarantee a court date, and I was a caregiver for my brother. So I couldn’t testify.
Wanted to give store manager money as a reward,later. But he was never at store. Kind and brave man...never forget his good deed.
Look at the list again. London is on there. While nominal Christians outnumber them, practicing Muslims likely outnumber practicing Christians.
Very poor study design...very poor...not even worth publishing or even repeating.
Strangely enough — this happened to me in Ukraine (2017) sort of.
I was out and about and a guy in the street found one — weirdly it had money from various countries. The guy wanted to split it with me. Now I could have used the money — the ATM had eaten my credit card and I was praying we’d have enough money to get home.
I thought no, he found it all on his own. There was no ID as I recall.
A few minutes later, another guy came around and claimed the money. The guy who found the money surrendered it rather easily.
I wondered if the whole thing was a scam designed to get me to put my share of the money in my own wallet, then when the other guy came around wanting his money, I’d have had to empty all the cash out of my own wallet.
...or maybe the two guys together would have introduced me to the Ukrainian mafia.
They tried, but the reporters were never heard from again...
...not on the streets. /John Cleese
Don’t tell me you’ve never seen The Sting (1973) with Robert Redford and Paul Newman!? That’s pretty much the opening scene!
Oh, you’re right...I did see it. Thankfully we had enough money to get home...that was before the war...I won’t be going back any time soon.
👍🏻
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