How Honest Are We?

[R. S. Martin]

When I lost my wallet last winter (left it in a school washroom and didn't miss it for about 90 minutes) I sort of knew I would find it in Security. I was really worried, naturally, but the people I talked to for advice sounded really confident that checking Security would bring positive results. It did. Nothing was taken.

 

Is it just this part of the country where people are honest or is this the general Canadian public? I've really wondered about this. Reader's Digest did an experiment in large cities around the world to see how many cell phones would be returned. They dropped 30 phones in 32 different cities (960 phones total) and 654 were returned--68%. Toronto was the second highest; 28 out of 30 phones were returned. I'm not that far from Toronto so I guess it's not just my imagination that most people are honest.

 

New York was a tie with two other cities. All ranked fifth: 24 were returned. London, England ranked 21st, on a par with Sydney, Australia. 19 were returned in both cities.

 

Ljubljana, Slovenia ranked top. 29 out of 30 were returned.

 

Did money make a difference? They noticed well-dressed people keeping phones and homeless people returning them. Among the highest level of "keeping it" were security guards in uniform. They would lie to the reporter even while they held the phone in their hand wrapped in paper.

[Dhampir]

I would guess a number of factors went into this. If it were money, instead of a cell phone, I bet you'd see a higher percentage of homeless people keeping it. Additionally, one might think that the thought of reward for the return of something that can't be used as well by poor people as money would be a factor, as well as a possible sense of entitlement on the part of the wealthy; the misfortune of the 'loser' in this case helps them to maintain what they've acquired up to this point. The security guards? Authority figures, who'd likely not be questioned and therefore abuse their positions more readily, because people tend to forget they're just people like anyone else.

[Jun]

Er, Tokyo wasn't included in this?

 

I can leave my camera on a table in MacDonalds in Tokyo and people will not touch it, they know that the table is taken because there are belongings on it! It would'nt last 5 mins in Sydney. I can leave my car and my house unlocked and even leave my groceries unattended. It is not unusual to see shopkeepers chasing customers down the street to return forgotten items or change - in Sydney that would rarely happen. The amount of lost money that is handed in in Tokyo everyday is absolutely staggering.

 

On the honesty of security guards. The security guards at Sydney's Darling Harbour are running a mobile phone racket. Phones that they find are sold to the cleaners or other staff, and one cleaner sends those phones back to New Zealand where the blocking feature doesn't work.

[HuaiDan]

I've lost my mobile phone twice in my 4 yrs in China, never had it returned or never did anyone try to contact someone on my lost mobile phone to try and return it.

 

On the other hand, I've recovered a few lost mobile phones in China, and even though I have the perfect excuse for keeping it (my chinese speaking ability is quite , eh, broken), I took all the steps necessary to make sure the mobile phone got returned to its rightful owner.

 

I'm not sure this reflects on anyone's honesty in China, but think it's more of a cultural thing: in China, finder's really is keeper's.

 

I can leave my camera on a table in MacDonalds in Tokyo and people will not touch it,

No way, huh-uh, never in China. Take your eyes off it for a second and it's gooooone.

[Unknowing1]

I think it depends on who is doing the finding and what is being found.

 

No offense but I'm thinking a homeless person would be much more likely to return a cell phone because they would have less use for it. Who would they call? They probably also don't have the contacts needed to sell that type of item either.

 

I lost a cell phone when making a connection flight in Atlanta. By the time I touched down at home and could call the phone company 2 hours later numerous calls had already been made all to various numbers in Atlanta. Seems that one of the people working at the airport (actually on the airplane itself) found it. I found a cell phone one time and made sure it made it's way to the rightful owner.

[Jun]

"Just think," a well-traveled Japanese friend said to me after recovering his MacBook in Tokyo, "What would have happened if I had left my laptop on the subway in New York."

[Carolyn the Red]

Is it just this part of the country where people are honest or is this the general Canadian public? I've really wondered about this. Reader's Digest did an experiment in large cities around the world to see how many cell phones would be returned. They dropped 30 phones in 32 different cities (960 phones total) and 654 were returned--68%. Toronto was the second highest; 28 out of 30 phones were returned. I'm not that far from Toronto so I guess it's not just my imagination that most people are honest.

 

I lost my wallet a couple years ago fall in a "poorer" area of Toronto, got it back a month later, intact, complete with a ten or something tucked into it. Took the community centre staff that long to find my phone number, or something. I lost another wallet and never got it back, but I think it fell into a snowbank and was ploughed away. Nobody ever tried to use my credit cards, but maybe someone took my cash and threw the rest away. I dropped yet another (with just some money, bus tickets, a student card, and one credit card) on the bus a few months back, and came home to a phone message from the TTC (transit) lost and found office, asking if I'd lost something on a bus. Got that back complete with money too. I've found a couple wallets and returned them, dropped one off at a girl's house, she offered to buy me dinner to thank me. That one had a monthly transit pass in it, not cheap to replace.

 

Friends seem to have also had good experiences with lost items, with particular mention of the TTC lost and found, surprisingly an island of good customer service in a sea of cutbacks and surly employees. A friend got back a newly purchased scanner he left on a subway. I was told they even keep and return umbrellas.

 

No point to this, other than it seems that the local custom is to try and return items to their owners, especially wallets. Strangely enough, wallets are often stolen too, including from the community centre that returned my wallet. Seems to me that people here consider keeping a wallet as similar to stealing it.

[R. S. Martin]

Very interesting observations from various parts of the world. Thanks.

 

No, Tokyo was not included. Sounds like Tokyo and Toronto are much the same, though I suspect Tokyo ranks even higher, based on what people say in this thread. I never heard of cash being returned. I'm not sure what I would do if I found a twenty dollar bill in the parking lot. It has never happened. I've found and kept a two-dollar coin. Felt real guilty for a bit because surely the person could use it. But there was no way to find the owner. I guess a find of cash could be turned in to security like they do in Tokyo. Never thought of that.

 

The two lowest returns were from Hong Kong, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They tied at 31st rank. 13 out of 30 phones were returned in each city.

 

As someone pointed out, from a social scientific perspective this is not a water-proof experiment. They state in the article that this is not a scientific experiment. Probably I should have mentioned that in the opening post; wasn't sure how much technical detail to give. Here's the reference on the article:

 

Reader's Digest, Canadian Edition, August, 2007, pp 50-55.

Title: "Excuse Me, Is This Your Phone?" by The Editors.

Blurb: We dropped 30 phones in 32 cities around the world. How many would be returned?

[R. S. Martin]

I'm asking myself what can be observed about morals and religion in all of this. I understand Japan is a totally secular country, yet the return of lost items is far higher than in New York, the fundy capital of the world. China is secular, too, isn't it? So China and Japan probably cancel each other out. And we're back to what I've been observing for some time: Religion or lack thereof does not make a person better or worse.

 

Maybe I'm wrong about the religious factor in these cities. If so, I'd like to know.

[Robbobrob]

I lost my wallet once, my freshman year of college. It eventually got turned in to an assistant resident director, and I got it back about 3 days after losing it. Everything was in it, except the money. (I didn't even care about the money, my driver's license AND my student ID were in there, I could not eat or get a replacement ID all weekend).

 

Just random cash, without a name on it, I would keep (and have). But anything that I could have a chance of finding the owner, I would.

[HuaiDan]

With China, i think the situation has to more with the widespread desperate poverty. Also could have something to do with the attitude of personal property.

[R. S. Martin]

With China, i think the situation has to more with the widespread desperate poverty. Also could have something to do with the attitude of personal property.

 

Those two items probably feed off each other. People with lots enough can afford to respect the property of others and when people respect the property of others there is incentive to acquire enough for oneself.

 

As I look at what I have just writtne, I think that statement sounds like arm-chair philosophy and is way too simplisitic.

[HuaiDan]

It could very well be a social acceptance of it, right down to the family level. In China, among many, I wouldn't say all the chinese for sure, when you're poor, you get it any way you can; beg it, steal it, cheat it, whore yourself out. There's way more beggars and prostitutes here than I would imagine there being in Japan, and I imagine there are quite a few beggars and prostitutes in NY as well.

[Jun]

It could very well be a social acceptance of it, right down to the family level. In China, among many, I wouldn't say all the chinese for sure, when you're poor, you get it any way you can; beg it, steal it, cheat it, whore yourself out. There's way more beggars and prostitutes here than I would imagine there being in Japan, and I imagine there are quite a few beggars and prostitutes in NY as well.

 

Actually the beggars and prostitutes in Japan are usually Chinese or Malaysian nationals. Chinese crime in Japan has been on the rise for the last few years. Money laundering, theft, prostitution, and the duplication of copyrighted materials are all big problems in Tokyo that are due to the rise in Chinese syndicates.

 

Here are some interesting facts -

 

Lost property in Tokyo

 

Population 14,857,000 - cash found in 2002 ¥105,073,153 ($1.05 million U.S.)

Percent of Found Cash Returned to Owner 91.6%

[Max]

Once my husband and I were heading off for a ride on the bicycle trail, and we accidentally left our cycling gloves on the truck of our car. Gross, old, well used gloves with sweat from hundreds of miles of rides soaked in. They were gone when we got back eight hours later. Who would take somethat gross? I only touch them because they're mine! No way would I wear someone else's.

[WCrystal]

I just hope they didn't include anywhere from Southern California in that article. Every time I have lost or forgotten something, it has never been returned, or sent into a security office of a visited place.

The only time something has ever been returned to me was last month. My little sister lost her camera at a theme park and the kids who found it looked through the pictures and returned it to me because they saw me in the pictures, that is to say they asked me if it was mine before they handed it over. I thought that was cool and gave the kids five dollars for returning the camera because having something returned in SoCal is so rare it has to be worth paying for.

[Jun]

Today's news from Japan -

 

1 million yen left in mailbox at woman's apartment KOBE -- An envelope containing 1 million yen ($8,000.00 U.S.) was left in the mailbox of a woman who lives in a first floor condominium early on Wednesday, police said.

 

The 31-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld, alerted police after she found the envelope at about 4:30 a.m. The envelope was not there when she checked the mailbox on Tuesday evening. Her mailbox doesn't have a name plate on it.

 

"I don't know why it was left in my mailbox," officers quoted the woman as saying.

 

On Monday, about 10 million yen ($82,000.00 U.S.) in cash was also found in the mailbox of a house in Muko, Kyoto Prefecture. (Mainichi)

 

http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/wadai...040081000c.html

 

 

 

Having found that much money in YOUR mailbox, would YOU hand it in to the police?

[Luke Wolf]

I would like to see the same experiment, only done with a wallet filled with various amounts of money.

Myself, to be honest, I would probably take the money, leave everything else as is, and give the wallet to a post office or something to have them locate the owner.

A cell phone though, other than resale, wouldn't have much use. It's not like it's going to be working for more than a month on the same number. And the ease of tracking one may be another reason so many were returned.

[HuaiDan]

A cell phone though, other than resale, wouldn't have much use. It's not like it's going to be working for more than a month on the same number. And the ease of tracking one may be another reason so many were returned.

 

you can easily change a mobile phone's number and all the information stored in the phone by changing the SIM card.

[AgnosticBob AtheistPants]

Today's news from Japan -

 

1 million yen left in mailbox at woman's apartment KOBE -- An envelope containing 1 million yen ($8,000.00 U.S.) was left in the mailbox of a woman who lives in a first floor condominium early on Wednesday, police said.

 

The 31-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld, alerted police after she found the envelope at about 4:30 a.m. The envelope was not there when she checked the mailbox on Tuesday evening. Her mailbox doesn't have a name plate on it.

 

"I don't know why it was left in my mailbox," officers quoted the woman as saying.

 

On Monday, about 10 million yen ($82,000.00 U.S.) in cash was also found in the mailbox of a house in Muko, Kyoto Prefecture. (Mainichi)

 

http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/wadai...040081000c.html

 

 

 

Having found that much money in YOUR mailbox, would YOU hand it in to the police?

 

Having found it in my mailbox, yes. That would frighten me a bit. Some criminal leaves a drop in the wrong place and then comes back to find out what the fuck happened. No thanks. Let the police handle it.

 

Now finding it in a bag on the street somewhere, I'd be more inclined to want to keep it. Although then I would think how I would feel knowing that I had dropped 80 grand somewhere by accident and some asshole just kept it for himself. I dunno. I guess I'm pretty honest when it comes to that type of thing. I mean shit...the kid working at the movie theater counter gave me a Susan B. Anthony dollar thinking it was a quarter and I gave it back to her, letting her know she gave me too much change.

 

I've also found and returned a cell phone. It was a Mexican guy's phone and I know very little Spanish and all the numbers I called were Spanish speaking households. I could have just said fuck it, too much trouble and since it was the same model as mine just kept the battery and chucked the phone. But instead, I put it on my charger and left it on, hoping the owner would eventually call. He did and I was able to return it to him.

 

But wait, I'm an immoral, godless atheist! Damn! I knew I fucked up! I SHOULD have kept the phone AND the SBA dollar! Silly me.

 

[Jun]

Today from Japan -

 

Another 100,000 yen found stuffed into mailbox at Tokyo apartment complex Another 100,000 yen has turned up an apartment block in Tokyo's Bunkyo-ku where more than 1 million yen was earlier found stuffed into residents' mailboxes, police said.

 

Police said a resident contacted police after noticing the cash had been inserted into a mailbox at the apartment complex, which holds 47 households.

 

The find brings the total amount of cash discovered to 1.91 million yen in 19 households. A total of 15 households received 100,000 yen each, two each received 110,000 yen each, and another two households respectively received 120,000 yen and 70,000 yen. (Mainichi)

 

http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/jiken...040041000c.html

[woodsmoke]

Damn. Is it normal in Tokyo for someone to go around anonymously stuffing big wads of cash in random mailboxes, or is this leaving the residents there as befuddled as me?

[Jun]

Damn. Is it normal in Tokyo for someone to go around anonymously stuffing big wads of cash in random mailboxes, or is this leaving the residents there as befuddled as me?

 

It has happened a few times before.