Are most people honest?

A recent feel good story here prompted me to ask whether most people are honest?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160208/Grandfather-watched-1-000-blow-away-falling-stunned-strangers-return-penny.html

Apparantly this chap was in an area with 'issues' or an area 'known to the police' which makes the story even more amazing.

Good Samaritan gives up lucky pay day when he finds - and returns - $16,000 in cash | Mail Online

My experience indicates most people are honest, good people. I always informed people if they over paid me (giving a £20 instead of £10 not etc) and often got a big tip in return.

 

I suppose the level of honesty depends on the situation;

1, I remember taking a little old lady to the local supermarket. The fare came to £4.50 and as I helped her out of the taxi she said thank you, gave me a note and said to keep the change. When I opened the note up it was a £20. Obviously the old dear had assumed it was a £5. I ran after her and drew her attention to this and sure enough she had made a mistake and I gave her £15 from the £20. She was a regular and needed the money.

2, I had an arrogant person (using the term lightly; infact I'm struggling to describe him without profanity) who was nothing but trouble all the journey. "Arrogant this and arrogant that, blah blah blah" You know the type, quite wealthy, full of themselves and you'd not want to sit near them at a dinner party. Well, I dropped him off at his house and the fare came to £19.80. He pulled out a folded £20 note and flicked it through my window onto the back seat of the car and said keep the change with a smirk! (a 20p tip from a nice chap). I leant over to retreave said note as he walked away and when I unfolded the note it turned out to be two £20's stuck together I didn't inform him of this mistake, unless he meant to tip me £20.20, which I dout?

 

You'll know from your job that you just can't judge a book by its cover. I just can't count the number of times I had stereotypes blasted out the water in my taxi job. I think it made me a better person as it is easy to pick up negatives or stereotypes from your own life 'bubble', but really they're a lot of rubbish. I could give many an example of this but I think if you treat people as you'd want to be treated yourself, you can't go wrong. OK, there'll be the odd nut job, but 99.9% of folk are fine.

And those that aren't, like my number 2 example, will usually reap the rewards of their actions One of my ex taxi colleagues had a lad give him the run around on a Saturday night and against his better nature he trusted him. When the fare was upto about £30 the lad decided to 'do a runner' when the car was sat at the lights. He opened the door and ran for it, straight into the other traffic lane and got hit by taxi. Oh the irony.