Honesty in Japan
Most people have heard the stories about how people in Japan are so honest that wallets picked up in taxicabs and streets get returned completely intact. Sounds like fairy tales, right, especially if they are repeated so often.
Last night, as I was walking down a major street at night, I found a wallet lying on the road. My first thought was, “Cool, now I get to be another story of returned wallets!” Heh! I dropped it off at the nearest police box, where they confirmed the contents to be about 17,000yen, some point cards, and no identification.
Apparently, if the owner doesn’t turn up within six months, the finder gets the wallet. But, the paperwork for that takes 20mins, and I had an appointment. Eh, so I willed it to charity :P
I wonder if it counts as karma, even if I considered it more of way to experience something unique (filling out forms at a police box!) than out of pure generous honesty.
Still, I can now see why wallets do get returned. I’m pretty typical as far as Japanese go, behaviour and thinking-wise, and at no point did I even consider just keeping the wallet/money. Sounds kinda wierd, but, dude, even if you found it, it belongs to someone who’ll come looking for it. If I dropped my wallet, I’d be pissed if someone stole my money and credit cards from it.
Along similar lines, when I told my brother that I had found housing from a friend and resisted the urge to squeeze the rent down to bare bones (because it’s not worth ripping off friends), he said, “Well, if you want to be paid what you think you are worth, you should pay others what you believe they are worth.”
Well said.
And on the other side of the world, in one evening our party lost a $450 camera and a $300 phone, stolen from under our noses. And people ask me why I prefer Japan to the US…
