The Best Policy...But Not Always in Practice

Abe Lincoln, George Washington and Spock are the only real or fictional characters I can think of who were scrupulously honest. I have my doubts about Abe and George, but Spock was a paragon of virtue...he simply could not tell any kind of fabrication because it would be "illogical." Unfortunately, us regular folks aren't thought of in those glowing terms, and Reader's Digest, for some reason, set out to find out just how honest the people of the world are.
In something of an unique experiment, folks from the magazine dropped 192 wallets in 16 cities on four continents just to see how many would be returned. The wallets were dropped randomly in a variety of locations, and each contained the equivalent of $50; identification consisted of a cell phone number, some business cards, coupons of various kinds, and a family photo.  Observers apparently lurked nearby to observe the result.
In only five of the cities were at more than half of the wallets returned.
Helsinki, finland, residents returned 11 of the 12 to earn the top spot for honesty.
Mumbai, India, Budapest, Hungary, Moscow, and Amsterdam rounded out the top 5 "foreign" cities, returning 9,8,7, and 7 respectively. The only American City represented in the study was New York City, where residents returned 8 of the 12 "lost" wallets...restoring a bit of luster to the reputation of "The City That Never Sleeps."
Other cities in the study and their somewhat regrettable return rates:
Berlin and Ljubilana, Slovakia: 6 returned.
London and Warsaw: 5 returned.
Bucharest, Rio de Janeiro, and Zurich: 4 returned.
Prague: 3 returned.
Madrid: 2 returned.
Lisbon: 1 returned. Lisbon gets an especially bad review because the couple that returned the wallet were visitors from Amsterdam!
Of course, it's easy for all of us to say we'd do the right thing, buit until we are tested, there is no way to be sure!