@Elijah Soper there is actually origami that is done with dollar bills, and it's a bit more difficult than squares depending on the thing you make with it.
I’m curious how much the results would differ if there had been thousands of dollars in cash, plus gift cards and credit cards. People are honest about $4, but when it’s thousands I bet you might get a different result. Edit: Thousands of dollars is probably too extreme. People might return it because they fear repercussions of taking that much money. A few hundred dollars might be the sweet spot. A few hundred dollars isn’t enough to get the law involved and likely isn’t enough for a bad guy to come after you. FWIW I’m not suggesting that Mark should’ve done the test risking that much money. I’m simply stating that I believe the results could differ if there was more money in the wallet. I don’t think counterfeit money is a solution because that could easily end up in an innocent person’s hands.
@Rajat Gupta That would depend on how likely they think it is to be caught. That kind of thing would constitute grand theft in the US and typically be a felony.
As a fast food manager in a small town in Alberta, I had several teens irritating me by skateboarding on the lot using the concrete furniture and speed bumps for stunts. I was just about to go and tell them to get lost when one of them came out of the washroom and handed me a wallet he found on top of the urinal. It was intact with credit cards and about $700 cash. Lesson learned. When we contacted the wallet owner we discovered that he was visiting Kelowna BC and I was traveling to see my parents the next day in Vernon. 30 minutes north of them. When we met the next day they bought me lunch.
I will never forget when I lived in Chicago, i dropped my wallet on the westside, which is know to be a sketchy neighborhood. It was full of cash and credit cards. The person who found it called all the numbers I had written down on peices of paper(which was probably awkward cause who knows who's numbers I had) and then finally got ahold of someone( I think it was my mom)who called me and told me someone found my wallet. They drove all the way out my house to deliver it (on the northwest side) and wouldn't even accept a reward. I offered them all the cash that was in it and they wouldn't even accept it. I still to this day cant believe that happend in the city of Chicago
@veryslyfox If they had the wallet, they didn't need the trick. They already had the information necessary to rob it. And chances are that that house wasn't that much more wealthy than the others in the neighborhood.
When you find a lost wallet or purse, you hold a person's life story in your hand. Becoming a part of that story by returning or handing in the wallet, is a little adventure. In my experience, the excitement is what I remember rather than a sense of duty. Also, having experienced the relief of a returned wallet, it is a wonderful thing to be able to give that feeling to another person.
Such a beautifully poetic explanation. I once found a wallet in the dressing room of the department store. I didn't want their life story in my hands... just the valuable stuff inside the wallet. Finders keepers, losers weepers. ^_^
I love it how every time something happens to mark he makes it into a whole science project like his wallet or when a scammer stole his package lmao he’s honestly the biggest drama queen and I’m here for it
My parents once told me that in their time in Ukraine if you see a wallet on a sidewalk, you should probably leave it because there are criminals who would drop an empty wallet and once a victim picks it up, they would come and demand the money that the wallet didn't have.
I'm glad there's more honest people than expected. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't return someone's possessions the way it was found. I always think of it happening to me and how I hope if I lost my wallet/belongings someone would be willing to return it to me.
I lost my wallet in Tokyo with about 200,000 yen, next day a Japanese friend helped me out calling the restaurant we were the night before and they claim to have it; that night I picked it up with the whole money in. Making this experiment in Japan would be very interesting.
lol Another funny story I sat next to a young guy on a plane and we chatted and gave him my business card. He lost his wallet on his trip and someone called me. I said let me see if I can help. I remembered our conversation and remembered what he said about his Dad. I looked up that info and found his Dad on LinkedIn and sent him a note to have his son call the guy who had his wallet. Wallet was returned and I was pretty proud of myself for remembering in depth our conversation.
@Konglomerat Maybe the text layout gives out an illusion of the text having more lines because they might be on a phone, which would make the text automatically try and fit into the screen 🤔 For example if you had a wide screen and had a text editor in fullscreen, 5 lines of text on a phone would look like 1 line of text on a wide screen
@Abigail Anderson Too long of a comment? Do you have an attention span of 2 seconds? Tf? it's a short wholesome story. Hardly even 1 paragraph. Certainly you're joking.
@Chris L When did finding something become a felony? If you find something, you are under no obligation to turn it in. How do you prove found money is yours? How is keeping a large amount of found money a felony? What law is or has been broken?
@Moseeplo I've heard about that happening around here where somebody finds a wallet with that kind of cash in it and turns it in to the closest lost and found box for return to the owner. Also, keep in mind that keeping that amount of money would constitute a felony if the cops caught the party that kept the money.
In China pick pockets are considerate enough to leave the wallet where you're likely to find it. Which is both completely foreign and creepy AF. It implies that after pinching the wallent, trying the ATM cards at the nearest ATM, they still knew where to find my traveling companion to leave the wallet sitting next to the sidewalk where somehow I saw it.
Few years back when I was traveling in Salt Lake City I lost my wallet and in the process of backtracking I went to different stores l had been. The people literally got on their hands and knees to try to find my wallet, it blows my mind to this day.
They were either honest people or they were the ones who took your wallet and they made you believe to this day that they are innocent by helping you look for it. You never know, your story reminds me of those killers who help search for a "missing" woman/child..
I lost my wallet here in London (outer London, far from central), and gave up on finding it since you only really hear about robberies and such. To my surprise I got a letter, saying that someone handed it into my local police station. Absolutely nothing was taken from it, but by that time I already cancelled my cards and issued new ones! That was rather surprising.
As someone who lives in Oregon and has been to Portland I was extremely shocked at how many were returned considering almost every store has their windows boarded up (not an exaggeration)
I once found a wallet on a sidewalk. When I picked it up I was very puzzled because the wallet was absolutely filled with local saver cards. In every single card holder there was a different savers card and a few in the actual wallet part as well. I just dropped it off at the nearest house but it still puzzles me to this day that someone lost a wallet that was specifically for saver cards.
remember that mark said the purpose of the philippine bills was to give the illusion of a chunky wallet despite the Philippine bills + the american bills only amount to 4 dollars. It should be enough to give the person of malicious intent to take the wallet and never return it.
Chicago checks out, I lost my wallet on a train when I was in college and didn't even realize it until I got a call from the lost and found at the station. Someone had turned it in, no money missing or cards or anything! I was surprised but sooo grateful as a broke college kid!
I was on a motorcycle adventure and lost my wallet in the middle of nowhere. Someone took the effort to drop my wallet at my home 300 miles away. That's dedication
Not surprised at all that Chicago had a 100% return rate! One of my fav things about living here is that you get the perks of the big city, but with a feeling of genuine midwestern kindness and community! ❤️ Chicago’s the best
That’s really cool. Glad to see that I experienced an outlier. Case. I’ve only lost my wallet once, and unfortunately it was empty of the 200 dollars I had and needed for food. Luckily I have family and friends that were more than willing to make sure I was taken care of.
Coming from Iowa, I was excited to see how well we fared, knowing that Iowa is a pretty honest place. So watching you call out Nashua, IDAHO, was such a head-shaker. We don't get no respect, even when we deserve it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can you imagine the confusion the disneyland security guy had when he realized that two identical wallets were turned in with all the same very specific things in them. That would be so strange, like a weird glitch or whatever lol
If you think about it, there could have been a number of people who saw the wallet and just walked by. Mark didn’t include those numbers from the videos seen of the wallet, but i would love to see those data points
I moved to Canada 10 yrs ago. I find it weird here because I have had things stolen from me very often (gyms, car broken into etc.) which I haven't experienced in any other countries, yet I have lost wallets and phones on many occasions and always had them returned.
I've been to almost every state and spent a lot of time in many of the cities around the United States and the people in Salt Lake City are definitely the nicest.
Have you been to Flint Michigan and if you have were people nice there? Just curious because of the crime that goes on there and if it affects the citizens too.
I love the factors you took into consideration while carrying out this experiment. Very practical and likely to yield an accurate result (unbiased). Great job👍
I remember one time some one lost their wallet in the place I work at and there was almost $400 in there. Needless to say they were really happy about getting it back.
@Garrett Johnsen omg one time I accidentally gave the customer my server book (I used an old check presenter) instead of their check, and the bastards took all the cash I had... a lot of that money goes to the restaurant at the end of the night it’s not exclusively tips it’s more like a cash register. I was devastated.
This takes me back to when I had a summer job as a janitor at a small mall. Someone found a wallet and handed it in to me. There was ID in it, searched the lady up and found out that she lived close by, less than 1 km, and since I didn't have a particularly busy day, I decided to use my remaining 40 mins to go and deliver it. Upon arrival it turned out to be a retirement home of some sort and I was greeted by a very skeptical nurse/handler at the door (why are you here?), but when I explained it, she let me in and I had to witness her leaving the wallet on the owners night stand (she was still out). Turns out...the owner was somewhat demented (or at least cognitively weakened), she probably didn't know her wallet was even missing 😛 Hopefully this doesn't come out as bragging, but if you turn something in and don't get a big thank you...there might be reasons you're not aware of.
I lost my wallet that my gf gave to me in SF at a club and it was actually returned a week later! So happy. Not even about the money in the wallet, but rather the actual wallet can't even be bought anymore and has a lot of sentimental value to me
I lost a wallet with 1300 cash in it at a huge music festival. Few hours later collected it from the lost in found with nothing missing. Faith in humanity restored.
A number of years ago I lost my wallet and it was returned several months later with more cash than I'd originally had, as well as several gift cards. My guess is the wallet was found by someone who kept the wallet and began using it, then lost it themselves (the return was anonymous). Replacing credit cards, I.D.s, etc., was the worst part of the experience.
Mark you should retry this study in all the same cities to compare progress or decline, also you should do a second larger study with even more wallets and maybe even some variation to said wallets.
Love the idea, some people might not have returned because it was just $6 bucks and in the digital age every picture can be reprinted. Do the test again with $100 in it and see what happens.
@Mm Fresh Meat Actually, engineers do not make a lot. They make a decent wage but unless they have a startup, engineering is an unappreciated profession. They have a huge beneficial impact on our society but make a little more than teachers. This is sad but true.
Great video like always, thank you. Learned something new, find a wallet, drop it in a mailbox. I work for public safety, found a wallet once, tried to return if and the person had the police come and get it. Talk about crazy. Next time I’ll just throw it in the mail box, won’t bother to figure anything out.. Thank you for the knowledge gained.
When I was a child i found a wallet. A lot of cards but no money. I supposed that someone took the money and left the wallet. I took it and walked like half the city(a small city) to find the owner(i didn't know where is the exact adress). When i found it i gave them and tell them where i found it. I didn't expect rewards like money, just a thanks. That old lady accused me that i took the money. I felt bad. Anyway that's the story how I started robbing people.
It would be very interesting to see this experiment repeated in the UK, and if there are differences between English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish levels of honesty. Also if there's a correlation between honesty and small towns and villages. In fact this study is about more than honesty, because if someone returned a wallet with a note saying "I'm sorry but I was desperate, and I took the money to buy food", in a way it would make that person even more honest and community minded. Great video, and your comment about social media creating a skewed mindset is spot on.
The study was very well done and it was very informative, it was great that you took the time and effort to take so many different factors into consideration. However, I know it's just for a video, but the sample is too little so the results don't seem conclusive, 10 wallets per city is not enough knowing how many statistic variables were considered. Also it's not safe, but if this was done with more money probably the results would have been different
I lost so many things in Japan and I always got everything returned to me. One time I dropped a Suica card (like a prepaid credit card with $100 in it) at a trade show with thousands of people and it was still returned to me after. I was so shocked. Thank you most Japanese people for being so honest and empathetic.
I actually am surprised it wasnt more returned. I wonder if more people returned multiple similar wallets to security or police than you realized and they didnt bother to play along. I know some questionable characters and I'd be hard pressed to imagine nearly any of them not being able to empathize with a lost wallet.
I agree that the amount of money should have been a bit higher since such a low amount of money (much of it in a foreign currency) wouldn't tempt most people. It is easy to be moral when you have very very little to gain from it. If it was say 20 dollars or 100 dollars you may have gotten different results. It is also hard to generalize and say a certain city is more or less honest because it really comes down to the individuals in that city that found the wallet. That being said I am going to put my phone number in my wallet and the tip about taking it the post office is clutch.
@ROBO KING While Disney Land is a big property in California (500acres), Disney World in Orlando Florida is WAY WAY larger (25,000acres). Basically you could fit 50 Disney Lands inside of Disney World or you could fit one Manhattan Island NY (34sq miles=approx21,000acres) and 7 Disney Lands. In fact Disney World is almost half the size of Orlando (119sq miles=approx75,000acres) which is impressive since Orlando is the 3rd largest city in Florida and the 23rd largest metropolitan city in the United States!
Absolutely brilliant Mark. I lost my wallet on last Monday & I'm absolutely traumatised. I have no idea how I'm going to get all my ID back. It took me 6 Months to get my last Photo ID. Now I have to go through that process again. I have absolutely no idea how I can get my important ID back, especially Photo. So yes I'm traumatised. So thank you for this experiment.
I love this experiment! I once had my wallet stolen out of my driveway. It fell out of my purse when getting out of my car. I had just cashed a tax refund so it was really devastating. It also was super disheartening that it likely was a neighbor.
I think the cash amount plays a very important rule in this type of science experiment, cause if the wallet had like 500$ the chances would be much lower that it can be returned.
I lost my wallet on the bus once with a single coin (¢1) and my student ID in it. A guy drove to the other side of the town to return it with the ID but the ¢1 was gone. Someone already found the wallet, took the ¢1 but not my ID, dropped it and another guy found it and returned it to me. He didn't even accept the reward I offered him for his troubles. This shows how different people are. Replacing that ID would've cost me $30 and a lengthy trip to city hall. Thanks guy with the Mercedes!
Identity theft is a more serious crime I think, could be one reason why you didn’t loose the ID card. Similarly Laws are more strict for car thefts than say bicycle theft, so car theft is less common , whereas bicycle theft is endemic…
I have a cool lost wallet story. It involved a rival high school band director letting me use an instrument for district honor band and a few years later me finding that exact person’s wallet in a Walmart buggy. What are the odds. Thanks Mr Square!
It’s unfortunate that Disneyland had to be dropped as a data point. A few years back, my eldest kid lost her wallet on a trolley at Disneyland, and was very sad (the wallet had sentimental value as well as cards/licenses that would be a pain to replace). The next week, the wallet (and everything inside) showed up in a USPS Priority box, send by Disneyland staff. I’m not a huge fan of Disney, but I was seriously impressed.
They probably felt bad after the outrageous prices they had already ripped you off for. Those parks re full of crime. But they had their own PD, so the stats are never made public.
You inspired me sooo much. Cause just yesterday my parents found a lost wallet at a rodeo and I remembered this video and put the lost wallet in my mailbox!
Mark rober is like the dude perfect of science, he doesn’t upload often but when he does you know it is gonna be good. 👍 keep going Mark you inspire us all to like learning and science.😃
I once lost my wallet while in highschool and the next day was told it was returned to the school for me. I had about 40 bucks in there but no money when it was returned. I was definitely more relieved to just have the wallet back even though that was a ton of money for me at the time.
The only time I lost wallet was when I lived in Chicago and nobody returned it to me. It had maybe $50, my student IDs, driver's license, and credit cards. It was a pain in the butt to get all those reissued. Such an irony that the test showed the total opposite of what I experienced.
I'm torn here, MuddyBob. Can't decide if I should point out the fact that not one city in Ohio was worth testing, or being shocked that you know how to use the Internet.
Vegas being high on the list doesn't surprise me at all. Worked in Casino industry half my life myself and co-workers found many a phone , wallet , purse etc. everyone turned into security.
I found a wallet full of cash on a circulator bus in DC. I didn't want to dig inside so I handed it over to the driver. She radioed the base and at the end stop there was a very happy grandpa waiting for it. Now the best part. I was literally on the first seat and the driver was such a cow that she took all the credit and hugs. I was really low that day and that bit of human gratitude would have made my day.
What a great experiment! It almost restores your faith in humanity eh? Being from Toronto, I was rooting for the Canadians! 🇨🇦 But so happy with our American friends! 👍
I lost my phone about 2 months ago, I had dropped it when I got out of my friend's car and didn't realize till much later. When I did realize I started searching for it, calling it from my friend's phone but it was clear it wasn't neither at my house nor at her car. Then this sweet lady calls my friend's number and tells her she found the phone we were calling to, and told us she waited at a local shop for us to go pick it up. I'm writing all this on that same phone because she was kind enough to return it..
When I was 21 I once lost a wallet containing two weeks' pay - which represented my share of the rent on a two-bedroom apartment. My co-worker found and returned it to me. He was a Cuban immigrant from the era of Castro (this was in the 1980s). I was so thankful, as I would have been homeless, or forced to borrow form the company loanshark at 20% interest.
I lost my wallet in the Walmart in Dubuque, IA twice a year ago and it was returned both times with the small amounts of cash I had had on me when I lost the wallets. I will be keeping my phone number in my wallet from here on out though, thanks.
I lost my wallet on a trip and I was so concerned it was going to get stolen. We searched for it for hours and came up with nothing. When I was panicking and calling to cancel my cards, I remembered this video, and it gave me some faith that maybe someone would return it… … Yeah that was bogus, it got stolen, I never saw it again
This is an amazing scientific view point and I actually recreated around the city (Las Vegas) and ended collecting very similar data I did do it on a bigger scale with 20 wallets in the city and 18/20 were returned but only 15/20 had money in them and really Disney what did you think would happen.
Sadly in Czechia, I lost my wallet three times, each time with around 20-50 USD equivalents and lots of cards like driving, id, debit etc... And two times I never heard of it again and one time I found it in my mailbox without money :(
I have a question for you Mark. Of the wallets that were returned in Seatle, was the person you talked to by chance a Tim Fieldsend? I'm only asking because he's my uncle and I know he lives there.
I lost a wallet in Japan that had 300 dollars in it. When I got it back all the cash had been folded into cranes.
Cranes can only be folded from squares. BOOYA
@Elijah Soper there is actually origami that is done with dollar bills, and it's a bit more difficult than squares depending on the thing you make with it.
@A1 A1 more tourists in Kyoto than locals - at least on the touristy avenues. Likely someone from China took it.
Did I ask?
I’m curious how much the results would differ if there had been thousands of dollars in cash, plus gift cards and credit cards. People are honest about $4, but when it’s thousands I bet you might get a different result.
Edit: Thousands of dollars is probably too extreme. People might return it because they fear repercussions of taking that much money. A few hundred dollars might be the sweet spot. A few hundred dollars isn’t enough to get the law involved and likely isn’t enough for a bad guy to come after you.
FWIW I’m not suggesting that Mark should’ve done the test risking that much money. I’m simply stating that I believe the results could differ if there was more money in the wallet. I don’t think counterfeit money is a solution because that could easily end up in an innocent person’s hands.
Sadly this renders most of the data useless. I would think a few hundred is the sweet spot.
"People are honest about $4, but when it’s thousands I bet you might get a different result." Exactly.
Mr beast should do this
@Rajat Gupta That would depend on how likely they think it is to be caught. That kind of thing would constitute grand theft in the US and typically be a felony.
@Elena Asinovskaya They are not 'most' and my comment is self explanatory
As a fast food manager in a small town in Alberta, I had several teens irritating me by skateboarding on the lot using the concrete furniture and speed bumps for stunts. I was just about to go and tell them to get lost when one of them came out of the washroom and handed me a wallet he found on top of the urinal. It was intact with credit cards and about $700 cash. Lesson learned.
When we contacted the wallet owner we discovered that he was visiting Kelowna BC and I was traveling to see my parents the next day in Vernon. 30 minutes north of them. When we met the next day they bought me lunch.
@Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator You saw it and thats all I need
@Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator Not making any sense none at all
la bla, Thanks for noticing my prodigious skills 😃
(too bad KZclip made your comment invisible and no one else can see it)
Skateboarding is better than loitering. When kids loiter it's almost always bad.
I will never forget when I lived in Chicago, i dropped my wallet on the westside, which is know to be a sketchy neighborhood. It was full of cash and credit cards. The person who found it called all the numbers I had written down on peices of paper(which was probably awkward cause who knows who's numbers I had) and then finally got ahold of someone( I think it was my mom)who called me and told me someone found my wallet. They drove all the way out my house to deliver it (on the northwest side) and wouldn't even accept a reward. I offered them all the cash that was in it and they wouldn't even accept it. I still to this day cant believe that happend in the city of Chicago
This is a great story
@veryslyfox If they had the wallet, they didn't need the trick. They already had the information necessary to rob it. And chances are that that house wasn't that much more wealthy than the others in the neighborhood.
@Jay Peterson If what they're doing is sufficiently bad, it doesn't even take very many.
Robin Hood never stole from the people
When you find a lost wallet or purse, you hold a person's life story in your hand. Becoming a part of that story by returning or handing in the wallet, is a little adventure. In my experience, the excitement is what I remember rather than a sense of duty. Also, having experienced the relief of a returned wallet, it is a wonderful thing to be able to give that feeling to another person.
Such a beautifully poetic explanation. I once found a wallet in the dressing room of the department store. I didn't want their life story in my hands... just the valuable stuff inside the wallet. Finders keepers, losers weepers. ^_^
I love it how every time something happens to mark he makes it into a whole science project like his wallet or when a scammer stole his package lmao he’s honestly the biggest drama queen and I’m here for it
Drops 69 wallets in canada gets
420 wallets back
Ppl calling in to donate their own wallets 😂😂😂
Yes and over a thousand apologies for the wallets being dropped in the first place.
Had wallet in car locked in a bag with 10 zippers. The money was stolen in a park where tourists visit. $5000 in USD. Canada is worst
r/usernamechecksout
as a canadian, i can confirm
My parents once told me that in their time in Ukraine if you see a wallet on a sidewalk, you should probably leave it because there are criminals who would drop an empty wallet and once a victim picks it up, they would come and demand the money that the wallet didn't have.
@Tok Tik j.p.q. ppl literally do that on the strip. Dress in costumes, offer to take pictures, then aggressively ask for payment afterwards.
Sad so
So sad.
@Tok Tik j.p.q. brah
@Mahad khan brah
I'm glad there's more honest people than expected. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't return someone's possessions the way it was found. I always think of it happening to me and how I hope if I lost my wallet/belongings someone would be willing to return it to me.
I lost my wallet in Tokyo with about 200,000 yen, next day a Japanese friend helped me out calling the restaurant we were the night before and they claim to have it; that night I picked it up with the whole money in. Making this experiment in Japan would be very interesting.
There's a video where a guy drops the same wallet 50 times around Tokyo and it was returned intact 100%. 🇯🇵
Rest in peace Grant, you are an amazing person for the science fans and all aswell.
lol Another funny story I sat next to a young guy on a plane and we chatted and gave him my business card. He lost his wallet on his trip and someone called me. I said let me see if I can help. I remembered our conversation and remembered what he said about his Dad. I looked up that info and found his Dad on LinkedIn and sent him a note to have his son call the guy who had his wallet. Wallet was returned and I was pretty proud of myself for remembering in depth our conversation.
YOU SIR, EARNED MY RESPECT
@Konglomerat Maybe the text layout gives out an illusion of the text having more lines because they might be on a phone, which would make the text automatically try and fit into the screen 🤔 For example if you had a wide screen and had a text editor in fullscreen, 5 lines of text on a phone would look like 1 line of text on a wide screen
@Konglomerat I doubt it
@Abigail Anderson Too long of a comment? Do you have an attention span of 2 seconds? Tf? it's a short wholesome story. Hardly even 1 paragraph. Certainly you're joking.
Drop your messy wallet in Japan, get it back cleaner with all the bills flattened, crisp, and arranged according to worth.
Exactly ❤
In some places, you drop your guard for 5 seconds and the wallet, watch, necklace, earrings all disappear
@Chris L When did finding something become a felony? If you find something, you are under no obligation to turn it in. How do you prove found money is yours? How is keeping a large amount of found money a felony? What law is or has been broken?
@Moseeplo I've heard about that happening around here where somebody finds a wallet with that kind of cash in it and turns it in to the closest lost and found box for return to the owner. Also, keep in mind that keeping that amount of money would constitute a felony if the cops caught the party that kept the money.
In China pick pockets are considerate enough to leave the wallet where you're likely to find it. Which is both completely foreign and creepy AF. It implies that after pinching the wallent, trying the ATM cards at the nearest ATM, they still knew where to find my traveling companion to leave the wallet sitting next to the sidewalk where somehow I saw it.
Few years back when I was traveling in Salt Lake City I lost my wallet and in the process of backtracking I went to different stores l had been. The people literally got on their hands and knees to try to find my wallet, it blows my mind to this day.
@Boeie Geurt turns out my wallet was back in the hotel room.
Don't listen to the haters! There are nice people everywhere, but is Salt Lake we just aren't shy about it.
@Boeie Geurt they definitely took his wallet 😭😭😭
They were either honest people or they were the ones who took your wallet and they made you believe to this day that they are innocent by helping you look for it. You never know, your story reminds me of those killers who help search for a "missing" woman/child..
I lost my wallet here in London (outer London, far from central), and gave up on finding it since you only really hear about robberies and such.
To my surprise I got a letter, saying that someone handed it into my local police station. Absolutely nothing was taken from it, but by that time I already cancelled my cards and issued new ones!
That was rather surprising.
As someone who lives in Oregon and has been to Portland I was extremely shocked at how many were returned considering almost every store has their windows boarded up (not an exaggeration)
A small percentage of the population causes a lot of chaos
I once found a wallet on a sidewalk. When I picked it up I was very puzzled because the wallet was absolutely filled with local saver cards. In every single card holder there was a different savers card and a few in the actual wallet part as well. I just dropped it off at the nearest house but it still puzzles me to this day that someone lost a wallet that was specifically for saver cards.
@StealingYourBones There will have been a severe couponer in a local supermarket crying and having to pay £111.23 for a shop worth £111.23...
@arbj true. I did what I could but there was no form of identification so I really couldn’t do much
That didn’t save the wallet from being lost though…
I always drop wallets in mail dropboxes. It's nice to know that actually works.
@Nick C more than you would think.
Lol how many wallets are you finding
This man turned "Social Experiments" back into Social Experiments.
Yep
@Pi Tech Actually this kind of study has been done before, and with more money the return rate actually went up!
@Just Another Comment I did study it at university. I have a major in Psychology. That particular experiment has been replicated many, many times.
remember that mark said the purpose of the philippine bills was to give the illusion of a chunky wallet despite the Philippine bills + the american bills only amount to 4 dollars. It should be enough to give the person of malicious intent to take the wallet and never return it.
And if you really want to know how wonderful human beings are look up the Milgram Experiment.
Chicago checks out, I lost my wallet on a train when I was in college and didn't even realize it until I got a call from the lost and found at the station. Someone had turned it in, no money missing or cards or anything! I was surprised but sooo grateful as a broke college kid!
@Joshua Mahalek well was your phone number inside?
I lost mine at a convention in Rosemont. Never saw it again
I was on a motorcycle adventure and lost my wallet in the middle of nowhere. Someone took the effort to drop my wallet at my home 300 miles away. That's dedication
Not surprised at all that Chicago had a 100% return rate! One of my fav things about living here is that you get the perks of the big city, but with a feeling of genuine midwestern kindness and community! ❤️ Chicago’s the best
Do you feel safe generally? Like if you mind your own business I mean lol
I would like to see this same test done again to see if this changes over time or if people keep the city about the same
I love the story of the convenience store owner who couldn't get the wallet stolen!
Imagine someone not returning it and then seeing this video
"Hi I'm John Quinones, I'm just wondering why didn't yo-"
LOL
@ex Lightning Not having any money could just be down to someone finding the wallet, looting it and leaving it behind.
Imagine thinking they got 200 bucks just to learn they cant even buy a starbucks.
C'est moi 🥺
That’s really cool. Glad to see that I experienced an outlier. Case. I’ve only lost my wallet once, and unfortunately it was empty of the 200 dollars I had and needed for food. Luckily I have family and friends that were more than willing to make sure I was taken care of.
Coming from Iowa, I was excited to see how well we fared, knowing that Iowa is a pretty honest place. So watching you call out Nashua, IDAHO, was such a head-shaker. We don't get no respect, even when we deserve it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agree. They still think we make Potatoes out here. smh
Can you imagine the confusion the disneyland security guy had when he realized that two identical wallets were turned in with all the same very specific things in them. That would be so strange, like a weird glitch or whatever lol
If you think about it, there could have been a number of people who saw the wallet and just walked by. Mark didn’t include those numbers from the videos seen of the wallet, but i would love to see those data points
What is really more sad, is that when you return a lost item the person doesn't even thank you!
As a Canadian I can confirm that If you drop a wallet you will get 2 wallets back
Are u guys still alive
@OMAAMO nono, as a Canadian i can confirm Canada does not exist... wait nvm
As a Canadian, I can confirm Canada is awesome
he didnt try toronto dang
I moved to Canada 10 yrs ago. I find it weird here because I have had things stolen from me very often (gyms, car broken into etc.) which I haven't experienced in any other countries, yet I have lost wallets and phones on many occasions and always had them returned.
I've been to almost every state and spent a lot of time in many of the cities around the United States and the people in Salt Lake City are definitely the nicest.
Have you been to Flint Michigan and if you have were people nice there? Just curious because of the crime that goes on there and if it affects the citizens too.
I love the factors you took into consideration while carrying out this experiment. Very practical and likely to yield an accurate result (unbiased). Great job👍
5:34 As an Iowan the number of times people mix up Iowa and Idaho still continues to suprises me.
What a great message. You are an amazing human being Mark Rober.
I remember one time some one lost their wallet in the place I work at and there was almost $400 in there.
Needless to say they were really happy about getting it back.
I found a ladies purse in a cart in the Walmart parking lot one time. She cried when I returned it to her home.
Well done you. Respect.
I found a ladies purse in a cart at Kroger where I work. Keys,wallet, phone everything, along with abandoned groceries. She never
came back. WIERD.
@Garrett Johnsen omg one time I accidentally gave the customer my server book (I used an old check presenter) instead of their check, and the bastards took all the cash I had... a lot of that money goes to the restaurant at the end of the night it’s not exclusively tips it’s more like a cash register. I was devastated.
Noice
What did you do to her?
This takes me back to when I had a summer job as a janitor at a small mall. Someone found a wallet and handed it in to me.
There was ID in it, searched the lady up and found out that she lived close by, less than 1 km, and since I didn't have a particularly busy day, I decided to use my remaining 40 mins to go and deliver it.
Upon arrival it turned out to be a retirement home of some sort and I was greeted by a very skeptical nurse/handler at the door (why are you here?), but when I explained it, she let me in and I had to witness her leaving the wallet on the owners night stand (she was still out).
Turns out...the owner was somewhat demented (or at least cognitively weakened), she probably didn't know her wallet was even missing 😛
Hopefully this doesn't come out as bragging, but if you turn something in and don't get a big thank you...there might be reasons you're not aware of.
Mark I love the effort and thought you put into your channel you make a content, thank you!
I lost my wallet that my gf gave to me in SF at a club and it was actually returned a week later! So happy. Not even about the money in the wallet, but rather the actual wallet can't even be bought anymore and has a lot of sentimental value to me
Anytime I ever lost money I genuinely prayed someone that needed it found it and used it however they needed to make it another day
I lost a wallet with 1300 cash in it at a huge music festival. Few hours later collected it from the lost in found with nothing missing. Faith in humanity restored.
Mark: "So age doesn't really affect their honesty."
Toddlers: *"Incase you haven't noticed, you've fallen right into my trap."*
ItsMeDaijahRBLX because, you’re yourself?
Peeling Bananas I do.
ItsMeDaijahRBLX Also nobody cares
ItsMeDaijahRBLX *LIKE**
I was the 999th comment
Huge props for sharing that CGP Grey video! It's super insightful! Anyone who hasn't watched it yet really should!
A number of years ago I lost my wallet and it was returned several months later with more cash than I'd originally had, as well as several gift cards. My guess is the wallet was found by someone who kept the wallet and began using it, then lost it themselves (the return was anonymous). Replacing credit cards, I.D.s, etc., was the worst part of the experience.
Mark you should retry this study in all the same cities to compare progress or decline, also you should do a second larger study with even more wallets and maybe even some variation to said wallets.
Love the idea, some people might not have returned because it was just $6 bucks and in the digital age every picture can be reprinted. Do the test again with $100 in it and see what happens.
@Emsyaz He has 22,300,00 subscribers and works with mrbeast and used to work for NASA lol
@Emsyaz collab with mrbeast anyone?
@Morning Lift What engineers are you talking about? For most engineers around 100k a year is the average.
@Morning Lift i guess, but the guy worked at nasa you can imagine he has a big salary (who else can say they worked at nasa on their resume??)
@Mm Fresh Meat Actually, engineers do not make a lot. They make a decent wage but unless they have a startup, engineering is an unappreciated profession. They have a huge beneficial impact on our society but make a little more than teachers. This is sad but true.
Great video like always, thank you. Learned something new, find a wallet, drop it in a mailbox. I work for public safety, found a wallet once, tried to return if and the person had the police come and get it. Talk about crazy. Next time I’ll just throw it in the mail box, won’t bother to figure anything out.. Thank you for the knowledge gained.
When I was a child i found a wallet. A lot of cards but no money. I supposed that someone took the money and left the wallet. I took it and walked like half the city(a small city) to find the owner(i didn't know where is the exact adress). When i found it i gave them and tell them where i found it. I didn't expect rewards like money, just a thanks. That old lady accused me that i took the money. I felt bad.
Anyway that's the story how I started robbing people.
Lmaoo
r/unexpected
@Exictly fatherless
They had us in the first half ngl
It would be very interesting to see this experiment repeated in the UK, and if there are differences between English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish levels of honesty. Also if there's a correlation between honesty and small towns and villages. In fact this study is about more than honesty, because if someone returned a wallet with a note saying "I'm sorry but I was desperate, and I took the money to buy food", in a way it would make that person even more honest and community minded. Great video, and your comment about social media creating a skewed mindset is spot on.
Paddy was a XXXXX
Paddy was a thief
Paddy came to my house
And stole a side of beef
The study was very well done and it was very informative, it was great that you took the time and effort to take so many different factors into consideration. However, I know it's just for a video, but the sample is too little so the results don't seem conclusive, 10 wallets per city is not enough knowing how many statistic variables were considered. Also it's not safe, but if this was done with more money probably the results would have been different
I lost so many things in Japan and I always got everything returned to me. One time I dropped a Suica card (like a prepaid credit card with $100 in it) at a trade show with thousands of people and it was still returned to me after. I was so shocked. Thank you most Japanese people for being so honest and empathetic.
I actually am surprised it wasnt more returned. I wonder if more people returned multiple similar wallets to security or police than you realized and they didnt bother to play along. I know some questionable characters and I'd be hard pressed to imagine nearly any of them not being able to empathize with a lost wallet.
I agree that the amount of money should have been a bit higher since such a low amount of money (much of it in a foreign currency) wouldn't tempt most people. It is easy to be moral when you have very very little to gain from it. If it was say 20 dollars or 100 dollars you may have gotten different results. It is also hard to generalize and say a certain city is more or less honest because it really comes down to the individuals in that city that found the wallet. That being said I am going to put my phone number in my wallet and the tip about taking it the post office is clutch.
I like how he put Disneyland as a “state” 😂
I DIDNT NOTICE LOL
@ROBO KING While Disney Land is a big property in California (500acres), Disney World in Orlando Florida is WAY WAY larger (25,000acres). Basically you could fit 50 Disney Lands inside of Disney World or you could fit one Manhattan Island NY (34sq miles=approx21,000acres) and 7 Disney Lands. In fact Disney World is almost half the size of Orlando (119sq miles=approx75,000acres) which is impressive since Orlando is the 3rd largest city in Florida and the 23rd largest metropolitan city in the United States!
@Long school does not tell you that Disneyland is a state
A state of happiness is given! 🤣
Edit: woops didnt realise @ayomau already said that. Great minds think alike
Listen, it isn't about Disneyland being a state, it is about being in the Disneyland state of mind.
Absolutely brilliant Mark. I lost my wallet on last Monday & I'm absolutely traumatised. I have no idea how I'm going to get all my ID back.
It took me 6 Months to get my last Photo ID. Now I have to go through that process again. I have absolutely no idea how I can get my important ID back, especially Photo. So yes I'm traumatised.
So thank you for this experiment.
would love to see this being tested in other countries
I love this experiment! I once had my wallet stolen out of my driveway. It fell out of my purse when getting out of my car. I had just cashed a tax refund so it was really devastating. It also was super disheartening that it likely was a neighbor.
I think the cash amount plays a very important rule in this type of science experiment, cause if the wallet had like 500$ the chances would be much lower that it can be returned.
I left my wallet on a bar in Ceasar’s Palace in Vegas. Dude literally chased me down to give it to me. I was pleasantly surprised.
Same. Thanks! Josey Wales, from Josey Wales’ Truck Pulls. Logan Utah … aka “Karenville” Utah 😘 👑🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈. 🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
I was just in there for vacation on Christmas yesterday…
I WANNA SHAKE YOUR HAND type guy.??
Kinda normal in Pakistan
My dad lost his wallet and the dude who stole it started using and putting money into the opal card lmao
For reference, there is about 180 wallets at 0:13. A cheap one could be about $10 a piece, so Mark spent around 1800 on the wallets alone!
@Gordon Ramsey Arrreee you going the mall after class?
@Lord Everybody Arrr, matey.
Mark is LOADED. Don't worry about him. He could have put $100 in each of those wallets and not felt it.
@Rich Childs Are
Plus shipping costs to all of the cities to be dispersed.
I lost my wallet on the bus once with a single coin (¢1) and my student ID in it. A guy drove to the other side of the town to return it with the ID but the ¢1 was gone. Someone already found the wallet, took the ¢1 but not my ID, dropped it and another guy found it and returned it to me. He didn't even accept the reward I offered him for his troubles. This shows how different people are. Replacing that ID would've cost me $30 and a lengthy trip to city hall.
Thanks guy with the Mercedes!
Identity theft is a more serious crime I think, could be one reason why you didn’t loose the ID card. Similarly Laws are more strict for car thefts than say bicycle theft, so car theft is less common , whereas bicycle theft is endemic…
Love what your doing Mark!
I have a cool lost wallet story. It involved a rival high school band director letting me use an instrument for district honor band and a few years later me finding that exact person’s wallet in a Walmart buggy. What are the odds. Thanks Mr Square!
It’s unfortunate that Disneyland had to be dropped as a data point. A few years back, my eldest kid lost her wallet on a trolley at Disneyland, and was very sad (the wallet had sentimental value as well as cards/licenses that would be a pain to replace). The next week, the wallet (and everything inside) showed up in a USPS Priority box, send by Disneyland staff. I’m not a huge fan of Disney, but I was seriously impressed.
@Grip It & Rip It exactly what I said. As they should for how much money they make off of each family.
It’s honestly the least they could do lmao.
They probably felt bad after the outrageous prices they had already ripped you off for. Those parks re full of crime. But they had their own PD, so the stats are never made public.
Person: "Did you lose your wallet by any chance?"
Mark: "Tell me EVERYTHING about you"
Person: "Wait, what?"
lol
ye
:)
😂
Not only can mark engineer, but he can edit one heck of a video
Do it for different countries! This would be really interesting to see how this changes over the world.
When i saw him i freezed, almost thought he is alive , now after i realized its more than 4 years ago , my heart melts
RIP grant TKOR
I had no idea you could drop a found wallet in the mailbox and the post office will return it to owner! Thanks for that tip.
You inspired me sooo much. Cause just yesterday my parents found a lost wallet at a rodeo and I remembered this video and put the lost wallet in my mailbox!
Mark rober is like the dude perfect of science, he doesn’t upload often but when he does you know it is gonna be good. 👍 keep going Mark you inspire us all to like learning and science.😃
@Tim Strömberg dude perfect and mark rober are two of my faves, so i take that as a no to me
what did you just say that made no scene
I'd like learning a lot more if it wasn't the end of the world when you got a bad grade
i was the 666 like
I once lost my wallet while in highschool and the next day was told it was returned to the school for me. I had about 40 bucks in there but no money when it was returned. I was definitely more relieved to just have the wallet back even though that was a ton of money for me at the time.
Faith in humanity partially restored. Not having my last two stolen/lost wallets returned feels less agonizing now.
You just gave me back a small amount of faith in humanity! Thanks Mark!
Out of curiosity, did you also collect data on how many people picked up the wallets and then put them back down?
The only time I lost wallet was when I lived in Chicago and nobody returned it to me.
It had maybe $50, my student IDs, driver's license, and credit cards.
It was a pain in the butt to get all those reissued.
Such an irony that the test showed the total opposite of what I experienced.
I can't stop laughing imaging the security guards confusion when he kept getting identical wallets xD
"Because Disney hates science 😂"
Anytime something bad happens to mark he just makes the world better😊
Well done, Detroit. Really shared your true character on this one...
I'm torn here, MuddyBob. Can't decide if I should point out the fact that not one city in Ohio was worth testing, or being shocked that you know how to use the Internet.
😭 I needed to see this thank you. I'm someone of objective metrics and this really helped restore my faith in people.
Vegas being high on the list doesn't surprise me at all. Worked in Casino industry half my life myself and co-workers found many a phone , wallet , purse etc. everyone turned into security.
Please make more videos like this
I loooooooved this one!
(Sometimes I watch it over and over)
Mark Rober :* lost his wallet *
Next day
Proceed to drop 200 wallets
Lol
Tell him to drop wallet carrying $1000, and see how many people call him back.
Better hope he never loses a tooth!
@͔ 2000 likes?
@rookA4 200 percent
I found a wallet full of cash on a circulator bus in DC.
I didn't want to dig inside so I handed it over to the driver. She radioed the base and at the end stop there was a very happy grandpa waiting for it. Now the best part.
I was literally on the first seat and the driver was such a cow that she took all the credit and hugs. I was really low that day and that bit of human gratitude would have made my day.
What a great experiment! It almost restores your faith in humanity eh? Being from Toronto, I was rooting for the Canadians! 🇨🇦
But so happy with our American friends! 👍
This was an interesting video, I’d like to see you run this experiment in England, since I’m curious about how my own country’s people act
Wild looking back and seeing grant, he was such a positive force on KZclip. R.i.p.
I lost my phone about 2 months ago, I had dropped it when I got out of my friend's car and didn't realize till much later. When I did realize I started searching for it, calling it from my friend's phone but it was clear it wasn't neither at my house nor at her car. Then this sweet lady calls my friend's number and tells her she found the phone we were calling to, and told us she waited at a local shop for us to go pick it up. I'm writing all this on that same phone because she was kind enough to return it..
This channel is the reason people should always return wallets and never take parcels off porches
Integrity is a good too
I love what you shared at the end about humanity. Thank you!
When I was 21 I once lost a wallet containing two weeks' pay - which represented my share of the rent on a two-bedroom apartment. My co-worker found and returned it to me. He was a Cuban immigrant from the era of Castro (this was in the 1980s). I was so thankful, as I would have been homeless, or forced to borrow form the company loanshark at 20% interest.
I lost my wallet in the Walmart in Dubuque, IA twice a year ago and it was returned both times with the small amounts of cash I had had on me when I lost the wallets. I will be keeping my phone number in my wallet from here on out though, thanks.
Operation Wallet Drop, Epic. You're so awesome for including all those people, made their day and just made mine. Thank you
thank you for this video that clearly says : the people you dont know are not as bad as (social) media might lead you to believe
I lost my wallet on a trip and I was so concerned it was going to get stolen. We searched for it for hours and came up with nothing. When I was panicking and calling to cancel my cards, I remembered this video, and it gave me some faith that maybe someone would return it…
…
Yeah that was bogus, it got stolen, I never saw it again
F
F
@Skye Aten It could also mean that the experiment outlined in this video is flawed.
To be fair, most lost wallets are not literally lost, THEY ARE PICK POCKETTED.
F
This is an amazing scientific view point and I actually recreated around the city (Las Vegas) and ended collecting very similar data I did do it on a bigger scale with 20 wallets in the city and 18/20 were returned but only 15/20 had money in them and really Disney what did you think would happen.
Sadly in Czechia, I lost my wallet three times, each time with around 20-50 USD equivalents and lots of cards like driving, id, debit etc... And two times I never heard of it again and one time I found it in my mailbox without money :(
Sorry to read that friend
I have a question for you Mark. Of the wallets that were returned in Seatle, was the person you talked to by chance a Tim Fieldsend? I'm only asking because he's my uncle and I know he lives there.
Haven’t seen a video that made me smile this much in a while. Thank you for doing this!