Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/21/people-more-likely-to-return-l.html
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Or maybe people are more willing to go to the trouble of returning a wallet if there’s a higher chance of receiving a reward.
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One time I was in one at a movie, and saw a $20 on the ground, I grabbed it. But then someone ahead of me was looking for what was probsbly.money, so I asked her if it was hers.
Another time, mid-month I found a bus pass. No marking on it, so I.kept it.
It’s easier to return something with a name on it. Otherwise, it may never get back to the owner. Why waste it On someone else if the owner will never get it?
I’ve never found a wallet, but I think I’d return it, or drop it in a mailbox. I did find a bus pass another time, and it had a photo and name, so I left it with a ticket taker.
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This is why I keep $100,000 in my favorite briefcase.
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Maybe people know that credit cards can be cancelled and reissued - but lost cash is lost. Last time I left a credit card somewhere, they called me to let me know, I told them to throw it away. It was easier to order a new card than to drive an hour to pick it up.
Wonder if there is an correlation to political affiliation?
Credit cards are the easy part. Banks make it really easy to replace a card so you can get right back to racking up debt.
It’s stuff like driver licenses and insurance cards that are a pain to replace.
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People more likely to return lost wallets if there’s cash inside
That’s me in the corner…
(After keeping the cash… 
)
Hey, it was a long time ago!
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Yup, can confirm that this is true.
I once found a wallet in the middle of the street in DC stuffed with cash and immediately set off to return it to the owner. This was before cell phones so I had to use payphones! Did not ask for nor expect a reward. pats self on back
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I found a brand new iPhone in the street where somebody probably dropped it getting in/out of a cab. I looked through it enough to call the girl’s mother, who called the girl, who called me back. Yes, she was in her 20s, dropped it leaving a club.
She wanted me to drive an hour to her house to hand it over. I was a little annoyed, but I thought, hey, maybe she’s hot, and it’s terrible to be without the phone…
Then she made small time windows to get this done which didn’t work for me. A $1,000 phone.
Eventually I decided to just take it back to the club near where I found it. I imagine she picked it up at some point. I don’t know. I blocked the number she was calling me from.
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The researchers surveyed people to see if they expected bigger rewards for returning more money; they didn’t.
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Well, there’s one thing we know about people. They never lie. Especially not to make themselves look better.
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I’ve only found one wallet in my life, but I would always return one no matter what.
That time, I found it on a seat in a movie theater when I was pretty young - in my 20’s - and there was a couple hundred bucks in it.
I found the guy in the phone book - that’s how old I am - and he came to where I was living to pick it up.
He took the wallet from me, opened it up and saw all the cash still inside and took it out and handed it all to me and said thank you. I refused at first, but he insisted, so I took it. No ramen that week. 
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Wow. That’s totally unreasonable. If someone was nice enough to make an effort to return my phone to me I’d definitely go out of my way to make it easy for them to get it back to me. I’d suggest they drop it off at a police department, or maybe a nearby café or something. To ask you to take hours out of your day to hand-deliver it on her schedule… wow.
I once lost my phone in China… well, it wasn’t my phone, it was my employer’s phone… I ended up having to pay a pretty hefty “reward” to the enterprising individual who found it (and snatched it up so quickly that when I went back not 3 minutes later to the place I’d dropped it it was already gone). We were able to communicate to arrange the handover because he pulled my SIM out and put it in his own phone and I was able to text my number from a friend’s phone. And Google Translate, plus a bit of the universal language of emoji.
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A wallet on the street with no cash in it was often already stolen. If you hand it back you are a handy patsy to get accused of stealing the cash. Lots of folks don’t want to risk the drama.
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I’m three for four* with my cashless wallets, and one for one with the return if my engagement and wedding rings. I never gave a reward (although I offered) for the wallets, but I successfully lobbied the college student who returned my rings to let me buy some textbooks for her.
*One wallet was stolen and tossed in a construction zone at same college; was mailed to me a year later.
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One time I found one with no money but it had an ID. I couldn’t find him on social media. Mailed it to the address on the ID card. A couple weeks later it came back to me return to sender. I think I gave up and tossed it in the trash.
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My wallet doesn’t hold anything except cards, so maybe it would be less likely to be returned. Then again, I just never put it down anyplace but on top of my dresser at home. When it’s in my pocket, the button is fastened to hold it in place.
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Um how did you lose your wedding and engagement rings??
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Huh. If I lost my wallet, I’d be happy to get it back without any cash that might’ve been in it. I’d rather lose the cash but save the hassle of going to the DMV, calling several banks and insurance companies, and buying a new wallet to put it all in… I just figure whatever cash I was carrying is the reward for finding my wallet and getting it back to me. (I also never carry more than $100 in cash…)
