You’ve probably heard the phrase “honesty is the best policy” many times in your life. According to a recent experiment, people in some cities really do live by that phrase. But in other cities, not so much.

Reader’s Digest recently tried a social experiment through what they called the “Wallet Drop Project”. What they did was test the honesty of people in a number of cities across the globe by dropping dozens of wallets. In all, 16 cities were selected across four continents with 192 wallets accidentally “dropped”.

How the experiment was set up

Wallets were dropped in Europe, North and South America and Asia. The wallets all had the same type of information in it, and the finder of the wallet could theoretically track its owner. Each billfold had a cellphone number, a family photo, business cards, coupons and cash (US$50).

The publication said the wallets were “lost” in the following cities: New York City, United States; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Berlin, Germany; Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Helsinki, Finland; Lisbon, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Moscow, Russia; Mumbai, India; Prague, The Czech Republic; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Warsaw, Poland; and Zurich, Switzerland.

The wallets were dropped in a variety of settings, including parks, sidewalks and various types of shopping centers.

Most honest cities

Of the 16 cities involved, the results of the experiment found Helsinki to be the most honest. In that city’s test, 11 out of 12 wallets were returned. Following in second place was Mumbai, where nine out of 12 were returned to owners. There were two cities tying for third place, New York City and Budapest where eight wallets were returned.

Least honest cities

Lisbon took the prize as being the least honest. Of the dozen wallets dropped in that city, only one was returned and the couple that brought that wallet to its rightful “owner” weren’t even from Lisbon, they were visiting from Holland.

Madrid took the position of being second least honest with just two wallets returned, with Prague rounding off the top three least honest cities with three wallets returned.

The other cities all ranged between four and seven wallets returned. Reader’s Digest published full results on their website with more details and responses from those individuals that actually did return wallets.

What determined the outcome of this “social experiment”

When it was over, Reader’s Digest said the results were interesting—47 percent (or 90 wallets) were returned. Factors, such as age, gender and wealth did not necessarily determine which people were more honest.  There did not seem to be any standard demographic to determine which type of individuals would return a wallet.

The bottom line of this “honesty test” is there are honest and dishonest people everywhere, according to Reader’s Digest.

“It is truly inspiring to see that there are so many honest people in the world,” says Raimo Moysa, Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest International Magazines, said in a press release. “And most of all, that honesty is valued among young and old, men and women, poor and rich in very different cultures.”