London: Mumbai often catches the world headlines. In the latest, the country's commercial capital caught the headlines for being a honest city. Mumbai is not just India's most 'attractive' city and commercial capital but also the second most honest in the world. In an experiment carried out by the 'Readers' Digest' magazine, India's financial capital ranked second in the world in returning a lost wallet.
The experiment was simple. Drop a wallet and see how many are returned to the owner. And Mumbaikars passed the 'test' with flying colours, finishing just behind Helsinki. Well, to find out where more people are likely to hand in a lost property, Reader's Digest conducted a global, social experiment with "Lost Wallet" test. The magazine put 16 cities to the test when wallets were dropped in public places such as shopping centres, car parks and on pavements – containing personal documents and photos, contact details and cash equivalent of $50 – in an attempt to find out how many would be returned to the rightful owner. Of the 192 wallets, around half were returned, but the outcomes varied from city to city.
As per the experiment's results, Mumbaikars returned nine out of 12 wallets they found on the road. Each wallet had Rs 3,000 stashed inside. But how did those who found the wallets managed to contact the owner? Apart from the cash, the wallets also contained a cell phone number, business cards and a family photo.
Helsinki, the capital of Finland emerged as the most honest city of the world with eleven out of 12 wallets being returned to their owners in the Scandinavian city. Lasse Luomakoski, a 27-year-old businessman, found the magazine's 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," he told Reader's Digest.
In Mumbai, Rahul Rai, a 27-year-old video editor, found one of these lost wallets. "My conscience wouldn't let me do anything wrong. A wallet is a big thing with many important documents [in it]," Rai told the magaazine. 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 the 'Lost wallet' and called us immediately," the magazine said.
Among the cities which fared badly include Zurich, London, Warsaw and Berlin. In New York, eight of the 12 wallets were returned. Portugal capital Lisbon was the most dishonest with only one wallet being returned to its owner and that too by tourists from Netherlands.
