'Lost Wallet' experiment shows Mumbai world's second most honest city; Anand Mahindra gratified by results

One of the most popular methods to judge honesty is the lost wallet test. Several stories are present over the phenomena of a person’s lost wallet being returned to them by Good Samaritans. A recent study tried to use this concept to find the most honest cities in the world. As per the results, Mumbai wins the honour of being the second most honest city in the world. The lost wallet study was performed by Reader’s Digest to glean the honesty in 16 global hubs like Madrid, London, Amsterdam, New York and Helsinki. The experiment involved dropping a purse with a cell phone number, a family photo and money equivalent to $50 or Rs 4,000. The aim of the experiment was to find out how many items were returned by people. Helsinki topped the list of the most honest cities, with 11 wallets being returned from the dozen that were dropped for the experiment. Mumbai came in the second place, with nine wallets returned while Budapest secured the third spot with people giving back eight of the 12 wallets. Lisbon was the least honest city as per the survey, with only one wallet being returned, and that too by a tourist couple from the Netherlands. Industrialist Anand Mahindra shared the results of the study on social media, saying he was “very gratified to see the results.” He added that Mumbai’s outcome in terms of honesty becomes even more impressive if the relative income levels of the cities were factored in the study.

Not surprised, but certainly very gratified to see the results of this experiment. And if you factor in the relative levels of income in each country, Mumbai’s outcome is even more impressive! https://t.co/uUdmhro7xC

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) September 15, 2021

The tweet went viral, receiving over 2,800 likes till date. Many users came forward to share their own experiences in the Maximum City. According to the latest report of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), in the year 2020, crimes against women in cities witnessed a decline of 21.1 per cent, as compared to the previous year. Mumbai was among the cities that registered a decline in the category, recording 4,583 cases in 2020 as compared to 6,519 cases in 2019.