Researchers Placed 17,000 Wallets In Different Cities To See How Many People Would Return Them
How often do you catch yourself in a position where you are totally dependent on other people’s kindness? Car broke down? Lost in the city without a map? Need someone to lend you phone for a call? These are only a few examples of situations where you will not be able to get around without somebody helping you. One thing that these type of circumstances teaches you is always to be kind if you spot someone who needs your help because you can never be sure when you’ll end up wishing somebody helped you.
More info: Science
Recently, researchers at Science journal conducted an experiment that cost them around half a million dollars
The idea of this social experiment is quite simple. Eleven men and two women have traveled to 355 major cities across 40 countries where they “lost” 17,000 wallets. The main goal was to see how differently citizens in each country responded to a lost wallet. Would they return the lost and found item? Would they keep the money? What was the reasoning behind their actions?
There were two types of wallets used in the experiment, one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key
These wallets contained grocery lists written in the native language, business cards with the owner’s name and email written on them, some money, and a key.
The average amount of lost money in the wallet was $13.45 (USD) in the country’s currency, and a few countries (United Kingdom, Poland, and the United States) had a larger sum of $94.15. As mentioned before, there were also wallets that had no money but had a key.
Here’s the graph portraying how different countries responded to this experiment
As shown in the graph, the yellow dot symbolizes the percentage of wallets without any in money in them that were returned, and the red dot shows the percentage of returned wallets that contained money inside them. Nordic people aced the experiment by returning the biggest amount of lost wallets. Unfortunately, countries like China, Morocco, Peru, and Kazakhstan had the smallest return-rate.
There were a few factors that affected the way people responded to the lost wallet – researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key, which mainly has to do with people thinking the key has a more significant value to the owner.
Of course, people rushed to react to this experiment
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Share on FacebookI found a wallet on the sidewalk on a Sunday night that had over $700 in it. There was all kinds of ID, so I called the guy. He was very suspicious, he thinking I picked his pocket (then why would I call him?). Anyway he shows up at my place the next morning. He was college/grad student age, not friendly at all, nasty, want-to-be aristocrat. I gave him the wallet, he went through it, counted the money and turned around and left. Not even a thank you. But I'd still return a wallet if I found one.
I'll say thank you for him then. Don't let him stop you from being good. Others do appreciate it.
Load More Replies...I remember that I found a laptop bag as an undergraduate student, some 15 years ago. The laptop was gone but there were some documents and a business card in it. When the owner came to collect his bag, he insisted on giving money as a thank-you. I gave my banking account and he transferred €200, a huge amount for a poor undergraduate. Still wonder what those documents were all about...!
There are a number of legal documents that either cannot be replaced or you have to jump through hoops and pay an extortionate amount of money for it. I'm just a student myself, but as I study abroad I had to haul a bunch of my papers (in original) with me. To replace them via the consulate would easily cost around £1000.
Load More Replies...Years ago, My father left his wallet on the car roof with all of his wages in it (I think around £150) He drove off and obviously it went flying off his roof, some notes came out of it. When he arrived home, a guy pulled in behind him. He gave him the wallet and told him that he saw it fly off the roof and he stopped to pick up the notes but he thinks it is all there. He was trying to get his attention but my father hadn't seen him. Over 30 years later and I still remember this. What an awesome dude!
Something that must be taken into perspective is that if the citizens of a country consider the Police corrupted, they won't return the wallet. If there is ID inside they will try to contact the owner directly (assuming they can read the card AND/OR have an Internet connection). That may explain the low scores of some countries.
That's an interesting idea, but this study had nothing to do with the Police. The return rates were only based on emailing the owner.
Load More Replies...Okay, I'm one of the dummies who doesn't understand the graph. The way I see it Mexico is the only country to return cashless wallets. What am I missing? I'm kinda used to being humiliated so have at it.
It's Ok, look at the percents at the bottom. So where Mexico's orange dot is at 22% return rate roughly, and red dot is at roughly 16-17% return rate. The other countries look different as the red dot(money) is returned more often (higher percentage) that orange dot(no money), and Mexico is other way around :) it's a weird graph
Load More Replies...I once accidentally stomped on a lost wallet at the bakery. Didn't open to see what's inside, just instinctively handed it out to the bakery staff, like "hey, someone lost their wallet here in your shop. Please, take care of it." Another time I found someone's phone under the desk at the university. I just gave it to the professor.
I remember being btwn6-8 years old, I found a $2 coin in the bookstore. I was excited, but my mum pointed out what if a little girl like you lost That, wouldn't she want it back? So we handed in to the counter (they were taken aback but cottoned on), I left my phone number, and they called 2 weeks later after no one had claimed it. I'm always grateful my mum taught me that lesson that day.
Load More Replies...I'm grateful to everyone on this thread who have made efforts to return things. I worked in a bar and about six months into my job, a new manager asked for my help in straightening up the office, which was left a nest by the previous disorganized manager. We found two things: a bundle of lost IDs -- about 60-70 in a rubber band -- and a "lost and found" box filled with wallets and purses. I asked if I could send out my business card to let people know we had their item and to claim them at the bar. People were incredibly grateful, I explained their item was unearthed when we got a new manager. One woman said the pictures of her children were all she had left because a house fire destroyed the rest. Another woman said she had been trying to function without her driver's license, because her parents are both immigrants and to get another she needed to get a copy of her Social Security card and couldn't without her ID. It was a vicious cycle trying to obtain her identity items.d
Unfortunately in Mexico theres a culture of blaming for example if you found someone injure, someone will call police or ambulance but caller or witnesses wouldn't cooperate with police because theres always the fear of get involved in the situation. So I dont know if people just think returning a wallet would put them in trouble like being accused of stole the wallet or the victim saying the amount of money was more than original amount. Just what I know. And live
Someone else also commented on how people are less likely to report when the country has poor institutions that are untrustworthy.
Load More Replies...Could it be that the worst scoring countries are poverty strikken? Where a little bit of money could make the difference in feeding your children? Honestly, I think it's appalling that you would devise a test like this.
Honest people are honest whether they are rich or poor. I think in some cases people are more likely to be empathetic when they are poor because they find a wallet and imagine how devastated they would feel if they had lost it, so they return it. The lower scoring countries may not have a strong a social taboo against petty theft or lying.
Load More Replies...I live in south Africa. As a child I once found a ladies wallet in the street. Took it home to see if I could find an address or something. Turns out I had to call a clothing store where she had an account, explain the whole story and then got her number. I phoned her to get her address and took the wallet to her. I rode 5km on my bicycle to take it to her. She opened her wallet, counted the money and slammed the door in my face. Not even a thank you or any thing.
That's ridiculous! Good on you for doing the right thing. A good person does the right thing even when nobody sees (or in your case, appreciates it)
Load More Replies...Me and my dad found a wallet once. It had all kinds of documents in it and some money. The girl lived a few hours away, so we tried to find her number through the internet, however found two people with the same surname that lived in her city. So we called them, one was related to her and they gave us her number. We texted her and she came by and picked up her wallet. It was unnecessarily complicated but 10/10 would do it again.
Not saying what nation this occurred in, but turning in a lost purse got us arrested as thieves. B/c, obvs, we must've stolen it and then turned it in with everything still in it. The lady who'd lost the purse paid oru "legal fees", which was quite nice of her, and we still stay in touch. (Hint: "Legal fees" ahem ahem... *sigh*)
If I ever find a wallet or purse, I try to see if I can locate the owner myself..(see if there is an ID in the purse and have the person paged at the place I found it.) If no owner is found, I turn it into the police department so they can locate the owner. I've left my purse behind on several occasions. I know the panic of thinking you will lose everything in it. I would never wish that on anyone else.
I'd just like to point out that New Zealand was only outranked in the wallet-with-money-returned category by two of the Scandinavian countries, and also came in the top ten for wallet-with-no-money returned. Kiwis are awesome people, but they don't get much attention because they're from a tiny country on the bottom of the world. So my hat is off to the Scandinavians AND THE KIWIS for being super awesome people.
Hee hee I'm a kiwi I love this, thank you! It's funny, we are so small and isolated, if you come here as a tourist you can be sure you will be asked if you like nz, and be met with big grins if you do
Load More Replies...I'm from Peru. A few years ago I found an IPhone 7+ inside a taxi and returned it to its owner after contacting him. I believe it highly depends on your moral values and the way you're raised; you could be really poor but still honest.
Found a wallet at a car race once, at the bottom of the back side of a huge set of bleachers.Within a few seconds, guy at the top of the bleachers realized he’d lost it, looked down, & saw me w/ it. He asked me to throw it up to him. I was 8 or 9 at the time, & the height & angle made it really hard to do. I tossed it up, it didn’t make it, & I yelled up I couldn’t do it, come down & get it. He was likely afraid that if he went down the bleachers he’d lose sight of me & my friend & we’d take off, although we could have taken off at any time had we wanted. He said throw it again & I did, this time it hit the back of the bleachers on the way up, and about every support bar on the way down. The contents went everywhere, credit cards, money, fluttering down under the bleachers. Then he started swearing at us for not being able to make an impossible throw neither of us could make at that age. F him, we just left the wallet & the contents on the ground & walked away. Ungrateful prick.
That sucks. You did the right thing, as young ones thats important, and he reacted negatively, almost a punishment for trying to help. Ungrateful prick indeed!
Load More Replies...Found a wallet and returned it to a nearby store. Had all his documentation from his entire life in it--it was thick as a brick. Would have cost $100s to replace. Do NOT leave all important documents in your wallet. He was super nice, by the way.
My BF and I found a ladie's purse in an empty lot, 4 doors down. No money, but wallet with ID. I found her phone number, called, set up meeting at a local church as a place to meet her. Her purse had just been stolen about an hour before, out of her car, they busted her window, Took her money, dumped the purse. We were offered no reward, no thanks, for returning what we found. She acted like she thought WE did it because the purse had been found so quickly.
You never know, they might've felt bad about that later but at the time was so flustered and mad she behaved poorly.
Load More Replies...Do not get it. Experiment said two types of wallets: "There were two types of wallets used in the experiment, one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key". But the explanation later says: "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key, which mainly has to do with people thinking the key has a more significant value to the owner." Go figure. Spent half a million on the experiment, but were unable to write it down properly.
The experiment is questioning the likelihood of someone reporting a lost wallet, according to location. Two wallets, one which offers personal gain to the finder (the wallet with the money) and the other, with no personal gain. Based on the findings, people are more likely to report a lost wallet if there's nothing in it for them. Sweden scored the highest suggesting Swedes rate high in integrity as opposed to the Chinese, who came in last.
Load More Replies...I found a wallet full of cash. Did think about keeping it, but the guilt was overwhelming. Returned it to its owner. Felt better.
I saw a plain envelope on the footpath that looked full. It had a name on the front and was stuffed with cash. I took it to the police station, left my phone number and that evening a man phoned and must've said 'thank you' at least 20 times. Nice :)
someone found my phone once in a cab - i brought them chocolates when i went to pick it up and gave them a huge hug. Still appreciate the nice lady who saved my day!
Japan should have been included in this study. Wallets containing thousands of dollars being returned within hours of losing it is not a rare phenomenon.
I would ave liked to see (south) Korea’s score as well!
Load More Replies...I found a wallet on the sidewalk on Christmas day, loaded with cash and credit cards. Luckily there was also contact info. The guy was so very happy when I called him, and so was I. Guess we kinda made each other's Christmas even better. He insisted on giving me 200 dkr (~30$), even if I didn't want it. Oh, we're in Denmark btw..
I found a brief case and all the gizmos dropped by an estate agent -collected them up out of the road and returned them to the local office - not a single word of thanks -from the secretary or her boss....nothing........so rude
Where is Japan on this list? Oh, I know. They had 100% 100%. In my experience, the Japanese are the nicest people in the world when it comes to losing things. If you lose something on the subway there is a really high chance you can get it back. Even something simple as an umbrella.
I once found $400 cash on the floor of my local laundromat. Picked it up and continued to do my laundry. Lady starts freaking out about losing her rent money. I returned it no problem, no reward but I didn't really care about that. I certainly wasn't going to call out asking if anyone lost some cash lol.
Mexico is the only country that is less likely to return your wallet with money in it. I guess Peru too, but it doesn’t seem like the money makes the difference
In Denmark, if there's no contact info in the wallet, you can always drop it in a public mailbox. The post office will turn it over to the police. Source: was a postal worker in Denmark. We had a special box for turned in wallets, phones, credit cards etc. as it was a regular occurrence.
Well, i have lost two wallets, two other friends lost theirs and were never "returned". Mine had credit cards, cash, drivers license. Sucks when this happens.
what coincidence that those country whose had a bad result has been under Spain for a long time
Never ever I would steal the money - it is anothers money. In Germany it has been unimaginable to keep a wallet - nowadays with many foreign people coming to Germany the moral is going down and down. As a boy I wondered how people can be so very superficial to lie and cheat and it was striking that in other countries moral is so very unimportant. Nowadays I am more used to it - it took me a long time to accept that the world is full of lies. I also wondered why my nation is seen as dark while I saw that compassion and honesty were so much better in my country - the world is somewhat upside down
I found an elderly woman's wallet once with about $350 in it. There was no phone number, but the address was listed as the apartment building down the road. When I buzzed, I asked for her by the name in the wallet, but she wouldn't let me even get half a sentence out - she thought I was a sales person! I wound up waiting about a half hour, buzzed one more time and just yelled, "I found your wallet!" as soon as I heard the "click" of the intercom. She let me in that time. She hadn't noticed it missing yet, but it turned out to be all her Christmas money. She tried to give me a reward but I wouldn't take it.
i would have thought Canada would have scored higher. :( Come on, guys!
In Portugal most people give these lost wallets to police officers or leave them in a post office mailbox, assuming you have real documents inside the wallet, police officers will contact you, and the wallet will be returned, if not, you have to go to the police station yourself. This wallet didn't have a single real document inside, there's not even a phone contact, how are you supposed to return this, send an email? XD This is just plain stupid.
Japan I dropped a wallet and it had my school ID, money, pretty much my life in it. It was in tact waiting at the local police kiosk. I had my wallet stolen twice in the US though.
I dropped my wallet getting out of a taxi in Chelsea, Manhattan. The next day a sanitation worker (garbage man) returned it to me. I gave him the cash inside it.
I was very pleased to see New Zealand up there at no 8 on the scale above. Awesome Kiwi's!!
I must keep this graph and remind myself where I wish to travel to first...Sorry, my dear Mexico and U.S. (I'm Mexican American) you must wait in line....ahahah ;-) I am so disappointed but proud of other countries that did the right thing I have even considered moving there.
I was going to say the same thing about Japan: Wallet would be exactly where you left it. Safe and sound.
What I learned from this is that if I want my keys returned in case I lost them, better put some money with them as well!
One question is the amount in the wallet was equivalent to the average salary in each country. If the amount was the same it's not comparable in my opinion.
There are alot of suckerpunchers in Cali. Ound a wallet with money and went to his house just around the corner. No one home so left note. Two days later got a response from his wife after leaving a msg on her instagram then got his call. He came and picked it up, said thanks and bolted. She followed up with many thanks and praise for being a good sam, then added how upset and worried he was at its loss. Hmmmmm?
I found a wallet but luckily the owner didn't live too far from me. I also managed to catch a man's attention as he walked away from an atm leaving about $500 AUD in it. I grabbed it and handed it to him. He was really relieved as it was his rent money
My husband and I found a wallet on the road. We took it to the police, there was $175 in it and a bunch of cards and a card from another bank as well as the pin number. In our country if things aren't picked up from the police in 3 months you get to keep it. Long story short I went in to ask if anybody had picked it up, (I had a note inside with my name and phone number just in case he wanted to thank us. We the cop was acting a bite funny about it and I showed him the piece of paper the cops gave me 3 months earlier. He took the piece of paper and said it had been picked up. With his acting strange about it I am more than convinced he took the money. I hate cops that are dishonest. I know I could have found the owner, all I had to do was take it to the other bank and given it to them. I feel for the person who lost his wallet.
Another pop science soft and squishy study that leaves much to be questioned. First level error in reporting: Distribution is by city, results are reported by country. Second level structural question: What was the location of the lost wallet? Common sense says wallets in low income areas would be returned less often than in high income areas but that factor alone would make the results meaningless. As anecdotal comments are more interesting than a bath of cold logic, I'll end by saying if someone wants to put up the $500k for another "study" and fly me around the globe I will guarantee I can turn the result chart upside down.
My dad told me a story about a friend of his. This happened over 50 years ago. Some guy had lost his wallet and this friend found it. There was an exorbitant amount of money in it, like $2000. The friend returned it to the guy and the guy turned around and said, here’s 10c to go and buy yourself a rope to hang yourself with for being so honest!
I would have liked to see how (south) Korea would score on this graph! Also, I was working at a mall once, and a lady came up to me saying she had found a bag from Claire’s (a store that sells inexpensive accessories and things mostly marketed towards teenagers and young adults) in the washroom with a few things inside. I told her the lost and found was directly on the other side of the booth I was working at (we shared a low wall) and the person would be back soon. This full grown ADULT woman with her seven or eight year old son in tow, then said to me “well should I return it? It’s a cute little bracelet.” I just sort of stared at her in surprise, because the answer was obvious to me, and I repeated that the lost and found was behind me, and the person working there would be back soon. I wish I had taken the bag and said, “I’ll give it to the lost and found when she comes back” because it turns out the lady never did hand it in, and the person who lost it had called looking for it.
Astonishing the number of people that don't know where Switzerland is! Although it is really the most honest country i know. IT IS NOT A NORDIC COUNTRY! That would be Sweden. I am from the Netherlands, but live in Switzerland. Both are pretty good. For the Americans that commented about Mexico: I wouldn't be so loud if I where you. For a country as rich as yours, you should be ashamed of that score!
Am I the only one who finds it weird that wallets WITH money were returned at a greater rate? I would return it, but I would have thought, if people were not going to, the ones with money would be the ones they'd more likely keep. Good to see New Zealand rating third overall. :-) I wonder how many wallets they dropped in each country and whether they checked that they were picked up at all, or are still sitting where they left them.
It's the license and credit cards that are the biggest hassle. Lost my wallet in NYC once. Got in the mail about about 3 days later
If i lost a key, for sure i would change my lock. Even though it's returned, it would be useless.
Statistically I am struggling to see how is this valid unless more information about their methods can be provided.
I wonder what country of origin funded this half a million dollar study. The government funds these, so that means the taxpayers paid for it. The amount of money wasted on these types of studies is astounding. https://www.businessinsider.com/james-lankford-federal-fumbles-report-of-government-waste-2017-11#a-trolley-renovation-for-104-billion-5
Found a wallet once. Took it to the police station. They said that’s the right thing to do.
"one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key" but "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key"
"one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key" then "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key" So you say both had a key then one one of them had a key?
So, the happier the populous, the more willing they are to try to return someone’s wallet to them? Or is it the places with positive relationships to authority, where they don’t feel crushed by authority so much that they feel inclined to respect the concept of laws, rather than rebel against them?
that's officialy the first time I'm proud of Poland after reading some statistics from the Internet xD
I found a purse with 150 euros and nothing else in the center of Thessaloniki, Greece, and handed it in at the nearest police station. A year later I found that no one had claimed it - and that the police nicked the money!
Some time before that, my own wallet had somehow escaped from my handbag, also rather close to the center of Thessaloniki. I went to the police to report it and was basically laughed at. By the time I got back home, there was already a message waiting: someone had found my wallet. There was not a cent missing and they refused to accept any finder's fee. Lovely people!
Load More Replies...Im from chile, a usa enterprise, n once i found a louis vuitton (or imitation) wallet over chocolates in a counter. Didnt even think about opening it an gave it to the seller behind the counter... now, i dont know what did the seller did after i gave it to them, hope the owner got they wallet back. Nowadays i can say chile is suffering from an intense sense of selfishness and ignorance thanks to the incompetense of our governments and our shame of education based mostly on winning money, so i can say this wallet chart is pretty correct.
Changes can be done, but “money is more important”
Load More Replies...I Think its really important in what part of the city the government experiments where done..
Proud of my birth country, Argentina! More honest than the US (even thought people have much less there) and right below Canada, which is a developed country.
Dang, if I followed them around I could pay off my mortgage with that 228,000
Cool, good to see the UK keeping up with our recent form of being the wankers of Europe.
One night I found a researcher looking for his wallet on the floor under à public lighting. He told me it was for an experiment. When we concluded there was no wallet here, he said "I knew it, but I didn't want to search over there : there is no light."
It all depends on how desperate the person who finds the wallet is, It has nothing to do with the nation they may come from, to many variables for this to be relevant.
PS-- can someone explain that graph to me? I mean, what is Mexico doing? Their dots are backwards. What a stupid graph! No wonder so many people are having trouble understanding it!
Look at China, follow the orange dot down, they had about 8% return rate for no money, and 22% return for with money. Mexico have a lower return rate for money than no money meaning they keep the wallets they find with money in more often. It is a stupid graph, but just follow the dots down to get the reporting rate.
Load More Replies...I found a wallet on the sidewalk on a Sunday night that had over $700 in it. There was all kinds of ID, so I called the guy. He was very suspicious, he thinking I picked his pocket (then why would I call him?). Anyway he shows up at my place the next morning. He was college/grad student age, not friendly at all, nasty, want-to-be aristocrat. I gave him the wallet, he went through it, counted the money and turned around and left. Not even a thank you. But I'd still return a wallet if I found one.
I'll say thank you for him then. Don't let him stop you from being good. Others do appreciate it.
Load More Replies...I remember that I found a laptop bag as an undergraduate student, some 15 years ago. The laptop was gone but there were some documents and a business card in it. When the owner came to collect his bag, he insisted on giving money as a thank-you. I gave my banking account and he transferred €200, a huge amount for a poor undergraduate. Still wonder what those documents were all about...!
There are a number of legal documents that either cannot be replaced or you have to jump through hoops and pay an extortionate amount of money for it. I'm just a student myself, but as I study abroad I had to haul a bunch of my papers (in original) with me. To replace them via the consulate would easily cost around £1000.
Load More Replies...Years ago, My father left his wallet on the car roof with all of his wages in it (I think around £150) He drove off and obviously it went flying off his roof, some notes came out of it. When he arrived home, a guy pulled in behind him. He gave him the wallet and told him that he saw it fly off the roof and he stopped to pick up the notes but he thinks it is all there. He was trying to get his attention but my father hadn't seen him. Over 30 years later and I still remember this. What an awesome dude!
Something that must be taken into perspective is that if the citizens of a country consider the Police corrupted, they won't return the wallet. If there is ID inside they will try to contact the owner directly (assuming they can read the card AND/OR have an Internet connection). That may explain the low scores of some countries.
That's an interesting idea, but this study had nothing to do with the Police. The return rates were only based on emailing the owner.
Load More Replies...Okay, I'm one of the dummies who doesn't understand the graph. The way I see it Mexico is the only country to return cashless wallets. What am I missing? I'm kinda used to being humiliated so have at it.
It's Ok, look at the percents at the bottom. So where Mexico's orange dot is at 22% return rate roughly, and red dot is at roughly 16-17% return rate. The other countries look different as the red dot(money) is returned more often (higher percentage) that orange dot(no money), and Mexico is other way around :) it's a weird graph
Load More Replies...I once accidentally stomped on a lost wallet at the bakery. Didn't open to see what's inside, just instinctively handed it out to the bakery staff, like "hey, someone lost their wallet here in your shop. Please, take care of it." Another time I found someone's phone under the desk at the university. I just gave it to the professor.
I remember being btwn6-8 years old, I found a $2 coin in the bookstore. I was excited, but my mum pointed out what if a little girl like you lost That, wouldn't she want it back? So we handed in to the counter (they were taken aback but cottoned on), I left my phone number, and they called 2 weeks later after no one had claimed it. I'm always grateful my mum taught me that lesson that day.
Load More Replies...I'm grateful to everyone on this thread who have made efforts to return things. I worked in a bar and about six months into my job, a new manager asked for my help in straightening up the office, which was left a nest by the previous disorganized manager. We found two things: a bundle of lost IDs -- about 60-70 in a rubber band -- and a "lost and found" box filled with wallets and purses. I asked if I could send out my business card to let people know we had their item and to claim them at the bar. People were incredibly grateful, I explained their item was unearthed when we got a new manager. One woman said the pictures of her children were all she had left because a house fire destroyed the rest. Another woman said she had been trying to function without her driver's license, because her parents are both immigrants and to get another she needed to get a copy of her Social Security card and couldn't without her ID. It was a vicious cycle trying to obtain her identity items.d
Unfortunately in Mexico theres a culture of blaming for example if you found someone injure, someone will call police or ambulance but caller or witnesses wouldn't cooperate with police because theres always the fear of get involved in the situation. So I dont know if people just think returning a wallet would put them in trouble like being accused of stole the wallet or the victim saying the amount of money was more than original amount. Just what I know. And live
Someone else also commented on how people are less likely to report when the country has poor institutions that are untrustworthy.
Load More Replies...Could it be that the worst scoring countries are poverty strikken? Where a little bit of money could make the difference in feeding your children? Honestly, I think it's appalling that you would devise a test like this.
Honest people are honest whether they are rich or poor. I think in some cases people are more likely to be empathetic when they are poor because they find a wallet and imagine how devastated they would feel if they had lost it, so they return it. The lower scoring countries may not have a strong a social taboo against petty theft or lying.
Load More Replies...I live in south Africa. As a child I once found a ladies wallet in the street. Took it home to see if I could find an address or something. Turns out I had to call a clothing store where she had an account, explain the whole story and then got her number. I phoned her to get her address and took the wallet to her. I rode 5km on my bicycle to take it to her. She opened her wallet, counted the money and slammed the door in my face. Not even a thank you or any thing.
That's ridiculous! Good on you for doing the right thing. A good person does the right thing even when nobody sees (or in your case, appreciates it)
Load More Replies...Me and my dad found a wallet once. It had all kinds of documents in it and some money. The girl lived a few hours away, so we tried to find her number through the internet, however found two people with the same surname that lived in her city. So we called them, one was related to her and they gave us her number. We texted her and she came by and picked up her wallet. It was unnecessarily complicated but 10/10 would do it again.
Not saying what nation this occurred in, but turning in a lost purse got us arrested as thieves. B/c, obvs, we must've stolen it and then turned it in with everything still in it. The lady who'd lost the purse paid oru "legal fees", which was quite nice of her, and we still stay in touch. (Hint: "Legal fees" ahem ahem... *sigh*)
If I ever find a wallet or purse, I try to see if I can locate the owner myself..(see if there is an ID in the purse and have the person paged at the place I found it.) If no owner is found, I turn it into the police department so they can locate the owner. I've left my purse behind on several occasions. I know the panic of thinking you will lose everything in it. I would never wish that on anyone else.
I'd just like to point out that New Zealand was only outranked in the wallet-with-money-returned category by two of the Scandinavian countries, and also came in the top ten for wallet-with-no-money returned. Kiwis are awesome people, but they don't get much attention because they're from a tiny country on the bottom of the world. So my hat is off to the Scandinavians AND THE KIWIS for being super awesome people.
Hee hee I'm a kiwi I love this, thank you! It's funny, we are so small and isolated, if you come here as a tourist you can be sure you will be asked if you like nz, and be met with big grins if you do
Load More Replies...I'm from Peru. A few years ago I found an IPhone 7+ inside a taxi and returned it to its owner after contacting him. I believe it highly depends on your moral values and the way you're raised; you could be really poor but still honest.
Found a wallet at a car race once, at the bottom of the back side of a huge set of bleachers.Within a few seconds, guy at the top of the bleachers realized he’d lost it, looked down, & saw me w/ it. He asked me to throw it up to him. I was 8 or 9 at the time, & the height & angle made it really hard to do. I tossed it up, it didn’t make it, & I yelled up I couldn’t do it, come down & get it. He was likely afraid that if he went down the bleachers he’d lose sight of me & my friend & we’d take off, although we could have taken off at any time had we wanted. He said throw it again & I did, this time it hit the back of the bleachers on the way up, and about every support bar on the way down. The contents went everywhere, credit cards, money, fluttering down under the bleachers. Then he started swearing at us for not being able to make an impossible throw neither of us could make at that age. F him, we just left the wallet & the contents on the ground & walked away. Ungrateful prick.
That sucks. You did the right thing, as young ones thats important, and he reacted negatively, almost a punishment for trying to help. Ungrateful prick indeed!
Load More Replies...Found a wallet and returned it to a nearby store. Had all his documentation from his entire life in it--it was thick as a brick. Would have cost $100s to replace. Do NOT leave all important documents in your wallet. He was super nice, by the way.
My BF and I found a ladie's purse in an empty lot, 4 doors down. No money, but wallet with ID. I found her phone number, called, set up meeting at a local church as a place to meet her. Her purse had just been stolen about an hour before, out of her car, they busted her window, Took her money, dumped the purse. We were offered no reward, no thanks, for returning what we found. She acted like she thought WE did it because the purse had been found so quickly.
You never know, they might've felt bad about that later but at the time was so flustered and mad she behaved poorly.
Load More Replies...Do not get it. Experiment said two types of wallets: "There were two types of wallets used in the experiment, one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key". But the explanation later says: "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key, which mainly has to do with people thinking the key has a more significant value to the owner." Go figure. Spent half a million on the experiment, but were unable to write it down properly.
The experiment is questioning the likelihood of someone reporting a lost wallet, according to location. Two wallets, one which offers personal gain to the finder (the wallet with the money) and the other, with no personal gain. Based on the findings, people are more likely to report a lost wallet if there's nothing in it for them. Sweden scored the highest suggesting Swedes rate high in integrity as opposed to the Chinese, who came in last.
Load More Replies...I found a wallet full of cash. Did think about keeping it, but the guilt was overwhelming. Returned it to its owner. Felt better.
I saw a plain envelope on the footpath that looked full. It had a name on the front and was stuffed with cash. I took it to the police station, left my phone number and that evening a man phoned and must've said 'thank you' at least 20 times. Nice :)
someone found my phone once in a cab - i brought them chocolates when i went to pick it up and gave them a huge hug. Still appreciate the nice lady who saved my day!
Japan should have been included in this study. Wallets containing thousands of dollars being returned within hours of losing it is not a rare phenomenon.
I would ave liked to see (south) Korea’s score as well!
Load More Replies...I found a wallet on the sidewalk on Christmas day, loaded with cash and credit cards. Luckily there was also contact info. The guy was so very happy when I called him, and so was I. Guess we kinda made each other's Christmas even better. He insisted on giving me 200 dkr (~30$), even if I didn't want it. Oh, we're in Denmark btw..
I found a brief case and all the gizmos dropped by an estate agent -collected them up out of the road and returned them to the local office - not a single word of thanks -from the secretary or her boss....nothing........so rude
Where is Japan on this list? Oh, I know. They had 100% 100%. In my experience, the Japanese are the nicest people in the world when it comes to losing things. If you lose something on the subway there is a really high chance you can get it back. Even something simple as an umbrella.
I once found $400 cash on the floor of my local laundromat. Picked it up and continued to do my laundry. Lady starts freaking out about losing her rent money. I returned it no problem, no reward but I didn't really care about that. I certainly wasn't going to call out asking if anyone lost some cash lol.
Mexico is the only country that is less likely to return your wallet with money in it. I guess Peru too, but it doesn’t seem like the money makes the difference
In Denmark, if there's no contact info in the wallet, you can always drop it in a public mailbox. The post office will turn it over to the police. Source: was a postal worker in Denmark. We had a special box for turned in wallets, phones, credit cards etc. as it was a regular occurrence.
Well, i have lost two wallets, two other friends lost theirs and were never "returned". Mine had credit cards, cash, drivers license. Sucks when this happens.
what coincidence that those country whose had a bad result has been under Spain for a long time
Never ever I would steal the money - it is anothers money. In Germany it has been unimaginable to keep a wallet - nowadays with many foreign people coming to Germany the moral is going down and down. As a boy I wondered how people can be so very superficial to lie and cheat and it was striking that in other countries moral is so very unimportant. Nowadays I am more used to it - it took me a long time to accept that the world is full of lies. I also wondered why my nation is seen as dark while I saw that compassion and honesty were so much better in my country - the world is somewhat upside down
I found an elderly woman's wallet once with about $350 in it. There was no phone number, but the address was listed as the apartment building down the road. When I buzzed, I asked for her by the name in the wallet, but she wouldn't let me even get half a sentence out - she thought I was a sales person! I wound up waiting about a half hour, buzzed one more time and just yelled, "I found your wallet!" as soon as I heard the "click" of the intercom. She let me in that time. She hadn't noticed it missing yet, but it turned out to be all her Christmas money. She tried to give me a reward but I wouldn't take it.
i would have thought Canada would have scored higher. :( Come on, guys!
In Portugal most people give these lost wallets to police officers or leave them in a post office mailbox, assuming you have real documents inside the wallet, police officers will contact you, and the wallet will be returned, if not, you have to go to the police station yourself. This wallet didn't have a single real document inside, there's not even a phone contact, how are you supposed to return this, send an email? XD This is just plain stupid.
Japan I dropped a wallet and it had my school ID, money, pretty much my life in it. It was in tact waiting at the local police kiosk. I had my wallet stolen twice in the US though.
I dropped my wallet getting out of a taxi in Chelsea, Manhattan. The next day a sanitation worker (garbage man) returned it to me. I gave him the cash inside it.
I was very pleased to see New Zealand up there at no 8 on the scale above. Awesome Kiwi's!!
I must keep this graph and remind myself where I wish to travel to first...Sorry, my dear Mexico and U.S. (I'm Mexican American) you must wait in line....ahahah ;-) I am so disappointed but proud of other countries that did the right thing I have even considered moving there.
I was going to say the same thing about Japan: Wallet would be exactly where you left it. Safe and sound.
What I learned from this is that if I want my keys returned in case I lost them, better put some money with them as well!
One question is the amount in the wallet was equivalent to the average salary in each country. If the amount was the same it's not comparable in my opinion.
There are alot of suckerpunchers in Cali. Ound a wallet with money and went to his house just around the corner. No one home so left note. Two days later got a response from his wife after leaving a msg on her instagram then got his call. He came and picked it up, said thanks and bolted. She followed up with many thanks and praise for being a good sam, then added how upset and worried he was at its loss. Hmmmmm?
I found a wallet but luckily the owner didn't live too far from me. I also managed to catch a man's attention as he walked away from an atm leaving about $500 AUD in it. I grabbed it and handed it to him. He was really relieved as it was his rent money
My husband and I found a wallet on the road. We took it to the police, there was $175 in it and a bunch of cards and a card from another bank as well as the pin number. In our country if things aren't picked up from the police in 3 months you get to keep it. Long story short I went in to ask if anybody had picked it up, (I had a note inside with my name and phone number just in case he wanted to thank us. We the cop was acting a bite funny about it and I showed him the piece of paper the cops gave me 3 months earlier. He took the piece of paper and said it had been picked up. With his acting strange about it I am more than convinced he took the money. I hate cops that are dishonest. I know I could have found the owner, all I had to do was take it to the other bank and given it to them. I feel for the person who lost his wallet.
Another pop science soft and squishy study that leaves much to be questioned. First level error in reporting: Distribution is by city, results are reported by country. Second level structural question: What was the location of the lost wallet? Common sense says wallets in low income areas would be returned less often than in high income areas but that factor alone would make the results meaningless. As anecdotal comments are more interesting than a bath of cold logic, I'll end by saying if someone wants to put up the $500k for another "study" and fly me around the globe I will guarantee I can turn the result chart upside down.
My dad told me a story about a friend of his. This happened over 50 years ago. Some guy had lost his wallet and this friend found it. There was an exorbitant amount of money in it, like $2000. The friend returned it to the guy and the guy turned around and said, here’s 10c to go and buy yourself a rope to hang yourself with for being so honest!
I would have liked to see how (south) Korea would score on this graph! Also, I was working at a mall once, and a lady came up to me saying she had found a bag from Claire’s (a store that sells inexpensive accessories and things mostly marketed towards teenagers and young adults) in the washroom with a few things inside. I told her the lost and found was directly on the other side of the booth I was working at (we shared a low wall) and the person would be back soon. This full grown ADULT woman with her seven or eight year old son in tow, then said to me “well should I return it? It’s a cute little bracelet.” I just sort of stared at her in surprise, because the answer was obvious to me, and I repeated that the lost and found was behind me, and the person working there would be back soon. I wish I had taken the bag and said, “I’ll give it to the lost and found when she comes back” because it turns out the lady never did hand it in, and the person who lost it had called looking for it.
Astonishing the number of people that don't know where Switzerland is! Although it is really the most honest country i know. IT IS NOT A NORDIC COUNTRY! That would be Sweden. I am from the Netherlands, but live in Switzerland. Both are pretty good. For the Americans that commented about Mexico: I wouldn't be so loud if I where you. For a country as rich as yours, you should be ashamed of that score!
Am I the only one who finds it weird that wallets WITH money were returned at a greater rate? I would return it, but I would have thought, if people were not going to, the ones with money would be the ones they'd more likely keep. Good to see New Zealand rating third overall. :-) I wonder how many wallets they dropped in each country and whether they checked that they were picked up at all, or are still sitting where they left them.
It's the license and credit cards that are the biggest hassle. Lost my wallet in NYC once. Got in the mail about about 3 days later
If i lost a key, for sure i would change my lock. Even though it's returned, it would be useless.
Statistically I am struggling to see how is this valid unless more information about their methods can be provided.
I wonder what country of origin funded this half a million dollar study. The government funds these, so that means the taxpayers paid for it. The amount of money wasted on these types of studies is astounding. https://www.businessinsider.com/james-lankford-federal-fumbles-report-of-government-waste-2017-11#a-trolley-renovation-for-104-billion-5
Found a wallet once. Took it to the police station. They said that’s the right thing to do.
"one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key" but "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key"
"one had a key and no money inside, another one had some money and a key" then "researchers found that wallets that had a key were returned way more often than those without the key" So you say both had a key then one one of them had a key?
So, the happier the populous, the more willing they are to try to return someone’s wallet to them? Or is it the places with positive relationships to authority, where they don’t feel crushed by authority so much that they feel inclined to respect the concept of laws, rather than rebel against them?
that's officialy the first time I'm proud of Poland after reading some statistics from the Internet xD
I found a purse with 150 euros and nothing else in the center of Thessaloniki, Greece, and handed it in at the nearest police station. A year later I found that no one had claimed it - and that the police nicked the money!
Some time before that, my own wallet had somehow escaped from my handbag, also rather close to the center of Thessaloniki. I went to the police to report it and was basically laughed at. By the time I got back home, there was already a message waiting: someone had found my wallet. There was not a cent missing and they refused to accept any finder's fee. Lovely people!
Load More Replies...Im from chile, a usa enterprise, n once i found a louis vuitton (or imitation) wallet over chocolates in a counter. Didnt even think about opening it an gave it to the seller behind the counter... now, i dont know what did the seller did after i gave it to them, hope the owner got they wallet back. Nowadays i can say chile is suffering from an intense sense of selfishness and ignorance thanks to the incompetense of our governments and our shame of education based mostly on winning money, so i can say this wallet chart is pretty correct.
Changes can be done, but “money is more important”
Load More Replies...I Think its really important in what part of the city the government experiments where done..
Proud of my birth country, Argentina! More honest than the US (even thought people have much less there) and right below Canada, which is a developed country.
Dang, if I followed them around I could pay off my mortgage with that 228,000
Cool, good to see the UK keeping up with our recent form of being the wankers of Europe.
One night I found a researcher looking for his wallet on the floor under à public lighting. He told me it was for an experiment. When we concluded there was no wallet here, he said "I knew it, but I didn't want to search over there : there is no light."
It all depends on how desperate the person who finds the wallet is, It has nothing to do with the nation they may come from, to many variables for this to be relevant.
PS-- can someone explain that graph to me? I mean, what is Mexico doing? Their dots are backwards. What a stupid graph! No wonder so many people are having trouble understanding it!
Look at China, follow the orange dot down, they had about 8% return rate for no money, and 22% return for with money. Mexico have a lower return rate for money than no money meaning they keep the wallets they find with money in more often. It is a stupid graph, but just follow the dots down to get the reporting rate.
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