The Wallet Test

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/11/21/oslo-passed-lost-wallet-test/

So a journalist dropped 20 wallets around the city, each containing about thirty quid plus change, a bank card and enough info to track down the owner. 15 of 20 were returned, 12 of them intact.

At first I was impressed by that, but actually it really highlights our low expectations of other people's honesty, that we are happy to hear that only about 25% of people would steal from us if they got an easy chance.

It's also worth noting that in the same test in 1996, all wallets were returned.

What do you think?

Would you return it?

Are these results impressive or saddening?

If in a wallet, I would hand it in. Loose money I just keep.

I left my iPod in a shopping centre, when I tracked it back to the right store it had been handed in. Most people are honest.

Yes i would return it and have done in the past. A few years back i was walking through the park up by the Cenotaph behind a bloke who was carrying a load of bags, his wallet fall out on the floor some of the contents spilt out on the floor, he had no idea he had dropped it and no one was around so i could have kept it. The thought actually didn't enter my mind, i picked up his wallet and put the bits that had fallen out back in and chased after him to give it back, there was probably about £200 in cash in there plus credit cards and a couple of vouchers.

A few years back I found a filofax that had been left in a phone box (told you it was a few years back), it was absolutely bulging with business contents and plans and schedules, and obviously the guy was running his whole world from it. I worked out his name, contacted him, he was about 25 miles away, and he didn't want it posted and he agreed to come out and meet me where he'd left it.

He turned up 45 minutes late, snatched it out my hand, didn't even say thank you, got in his fat car and fecked off!

True story, I would bother again though, people like this are the exception.

Think its a bit sad only 12 were returned intact, either that means that a disproportionate number were found by dishonest people or that there are more around than I would have thought.

As with Turks above it genuinely wouldn't occur to me to do anything else

I wouldn't even pick a stray wallet up, most of them are planted by journalists conducting social experiments.

Dave Gorman did an experiment on Dave recently with Money in envelopes that had large windows in them and all were delivered intact

Saw a purse outside Basingstoke post office a couple of weeks ago, picked it up and handed it in at the Post Office. Didn't think about it either, even though there were notes sticking out of it. Only after handing it in I thought "I could have kept the cash there", glad I didn't though.

Finding someones wallet is one thing, that could be their food money or rent for the week so I would always hand it in somewhere. £60k floating down the river in a bag though? That might just find its way to the Bank of Me.

I got a call from police station once saying they'd had my wallet handed in. When I went to collect it they was like, hold on the Sherriff wants a word with you. I was shitting it cos i suddenly recalled there was a couple tabs of acid behind the driving license. Plod led me through to interview room and the Sheriff rocked up, I was all ready with the stout denial "no bruv that ain't my wallet" but he just sat down, looked at me sternly and held open my wallet. "This isn't very clever, is it?" he said. I'd stuck a label on the inside and it said in bold, manly lettering, "Pin No.: 4723".

"It's people like you," continued plod, "that make our job so difficult. You are lucky that the person who found your wallet was honest. Frankly I think it would serve you right if they emptied your bank account."

I leaned back and flicked an imaginary speck of dust from the irreproachable mechilin lace of my blouse*. I was cool as you like. "Understand, Plod," I said, "that the number specified on that label is not my genuine pin number. My real pin number is 6969. That number there, you buffoon, is an entrapment for dishonest pick-pockets. I would of thought that you would be familiar with these modern crime-fighting techniques, but apparently not. The idea," I added making things clear to the meanest intelligence*, "Is that your average street urchin will rush to the nearest cash-point, gleefully enter the erroneous number three times and thus inadvertently return the bank card to it's rightful owner."

The Sheriff just looked at me, dumbfounded, and I like to think more than a little impressed. He very nearly offered me a job.

* Wodehouse paraphrase yo

The real question is, how do you know the person you are handing the money / item in to is honest?

Let's say you hand it in at the post office counter, do you know what happens to it after that? Perhaps they kept it? The same goes for a shop or finding a wallet in a pub. There is no legal precedence for them to hand it in to the police or trace the owner, so who knows what will happen to it after that. Your conscience will be clear, but how do you know if they even have a conscience?

I used to have a mate in the force. He had loads of wallets, and quite a few purses as well.

I had a mate who had to leave Japan cause he lost his wallet. In Japan they don't have any classification for drugs, drugs is drugs to them. Mate had some dope in his wallet and then lost it. Someone handed it in or whatever and the police called him. They wanted him to come down the police station to collect it. They said he couldn't just turn up whenever but had to book an appointment. Mate got paranoid (probably cause of all the dope) so legged it back home to NZ before they sent him down for 20 years.