Washington: India's financial capital Mumbai has been named the world's second-most honest city, according to a survey of 16 cities worldwide. Finnish capital Helsinki bagged the top spot for the world's most honest city in the survey, while Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, proved to be the least honest.
The survey put hundreds of people to test in four continents to find out just how honest they were by dropping wallets and seeing how many would be returned.
In the study, 192 wallets were dropped in cities in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Each wallet contained a cell phone number, a family photo, coupons, business cards and the equivalent of 50 dollars in cash.
The wallets were left in parks, near shopping malls and on sidewalks, and researchers watched to see what would happen.
Of the 192 wallets dropped, 90 - or 47 per cent - were returned, according to the survey by Reader's Digest magazine.
In Helsinki, 11 out of 12 wallets were returned.
"Finns are naturally honest, it's typical for us," said 27-year-old business student Lasse Luomakoski, who found the dropped wallet in the pedestrian street of Mikonkatu in downtown Helsinki.
In Mumbai, nine out of 12 wallets were returned.
Vaishali Mhaskar, a mother of two, and a stamp vendor, returned a wallet that was left in Mumbai's General Post Office.
"I teach my children to be honest, just like my parents taught me," she said. Another person who returned a lost wallet was Rahul Rai, a 27-year-old video editor. "My conscience wouldn't let me do anything wrong. A wallet is a big thing with many important documents [in it]," he said.
Later that same day, three young adults found lost wallets and returned them, the magazine said.
Mumbai named world's second-most honest city: study | NDTV.com
Helsinki is the world's most honest city while Lisbon is the least in lost wallet test | Mail Online
