UAE residents’ honesty put to a test

He dropped his wallet near a bus station, inside a hotel, along a busy street and in front of restaurants and coffee shops. Each time he did, someone else would alert his attention or pick up and return the purse.

Random passersby returning the wallet appeared to be Emiratis, Pakistanis, Indians or Arab and Asian expatriates. According to LiveLeak, they filmed over 45 different takes and every time the wallet was returned.

Some online users who viewed the video commented that if the social experiment was done in other places, the wallet would have been stolen. Others, however, expressed doubts that the experiment was genuine.

But it seems not all lost wallets in the UAE are eventually returned.

Marie, an expatriate who has been living in the UAE for more than 6 years, recalls that she had once accidentally left her purse inside a taxi in Dubai.

“The wallet contained my contact number and other personal details, but it was never returned. It’s been almost three years since I lost it,” she says.

Dubai was not among the cities included in a similar social experiment conducted last September by Readers’ Digest.

The magazine dropped 192 wallets in 16 cities around the world, each containing contact details and £30 cash.

By the end of the experiment, only less than half of the wallets were returned. Helsinki, Finland emerged as the most honest, returning 11 out of 12 “lost” purses.