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If you lose your wallet and it’s full of money, chances are someone will turn it in – cash and all. In a world where we worry about identity thief and cyber fraud, it’s nice to know that something as small and personal as a wallet will find its way back to its owner.

A study released last week in the journal Science was performed across 355 cities and 40 countries involved planting more than 17,000 “lost wallets” and seeing if anyone would contact the wallet’s owner. The amount of money in each wallet varied between none to just under $100, depending on the country. According to the researchers’ findings, the more money inside the wallet, the more likely the founder would return it. In the U.S., the United Kingdom and Poland, 72% of wallets with about $94 were sent back, 61% with about $13 and 46% with no money.

The study was performed with research assistants giving employees of banks, museums, hotels and other public offices a lost wallet they found. The wallets were small transparent cases sometimes containing cash, a key, a grocery list and a business card with identification. It was up to the employee to contact the owner about the retrieved case.

One of the researchers, Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan, said in an Associated Press story that the results show those who returned the wallet most likely “tend to care about the welfare of others, and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief.” As for why wallets will large amounts of money were returned in higher numbers, Christian Zuend of the University of Zurich with the research team said that “it feels even more like stealing when the money in the wallet increases.”

There are times when we don’t need a multinational study to tell us there is still some good in the world. Right here in Wilkes-Barre in 2013, comedian and singer Steve Martin experienced a stranger’s kindness during a tour stop at the F.M. Kirby Center. Martin lost his wallet while bicycling through the city, and a then-60-year-old man found it on South Main Street. The good Samaritan called the theater about the find, and the star offered the man and his family tickets to the show. The man, who remains anonymous, could not attend the show, but Martin gave him $100. The story spread beyond Wilkes-Barre, with media outlets reporting the man’s good deed. Martin thanked him through a tweet, “An honest man is found in Wilkes-Barre! Thank you, sir!”

While the study involved people employed to help the public, there are examples that the average Joe is also capable of doing good. As Shaul Shavli of the University of Amsterdam said about the study in the AP story, the findings show “that people care about others as well as caring about being honest.”

– Times Leader

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