Was in Carnegies on Friday with a bunch and one of our party left a really expensive (NT$20k) cashmere scarf sitting on her chair. Came back five hours later (with most of us saying “Nah, it’s gone - you’ll never see it again…”) asked the girl behind the bar… Lo and behold ! There’s the scarf ! Un-nicked !
How often do you get that !?
I never knew cashmere scarves could be that expensive! Perhaps no one else at the restaurant in those five hours did either.
Next time try leaving 20K in cash as an experiment. See how long it stays there.
My roomate has left his keys in his scooter many times. They are usually underneath it in the morning, or the security guy has them. Yesterday, he dropped his wallet at the local pub with about 9000 in it, and it was returned to the doorman this afternoon(intact). I lost my keys due to a broken key snap thingy, thought they were gone forever, and the people at the local sandwich shop somehow found them and chased me down the street to give them to me.
I have tried to leave a tip for good food or speedy service many times, and every time I do, people are chasing me down the street with puzzled expressions to give me back my NT 50$
I have had more problems with other foriegners in my travels.
Maybe I just have a good neighborhood?
This is pretty embarrassing but while staying in Malaysia I started looking for my car keys while sitting at the office.
Couldn’t find it anywhere so I thought I check if I left/locked them in the car - and they were there!
Well, nothing exciting you may think but considering that the key was still in the ignition, the motor running and the radio blarring it might give a different perspective.
Never figured how this happened since it is not something I usually do … 
Also a friend here left the handphone in the taxi, we noticed only after the cab was long gone. To our surprise the taxi driver came back and returned it (another friend coincidently called the handphone so the driver noticed the phone on the rear seat when it rang). Very nice - and the driver even refused some money offered.
I’m a 2-2-6-6 [taiwanese: lililala] kind of guy, always am absent minded. Once I came to Jakarta from the village and took the airport bus. I put my bag full of important documents and money on the rack above my head. When the bus stop at the crossroad, I just got off without it. When I realized I have forgotten my bag. I had to call a cab and rushed for the Airport bus. We manage to stop it in the middle of a highway and get my bag back. Otherwise I couldn’t imagine. Jakarta is a mess.
ax
It’s so nice to have a good news thread 
When I went for my medical at the hospital we were juggling two kids, a stroller, nappy bag etc. and I left my handbag in the taxi. It had everything - keys, phone, wallet, ID, credit cards etc. We went up to the second floor for the medical and 10 minutes later (I hadn’t even realised it was missing) the taxi driver showed up at the right floor with it in hand. I don’t quite know how he worked it out but I was SO grateful. I was so flustered and distracted by his appearance and by the kids that I didn’t offer him any money, and I always wonder whether I should have. I just thanked him profusely and he disappeared. Anyway, I was really impressed.
You think that’s good? Listen to this.
[quote=“someone in the straits times, Singapore”]Sir, On 7th December, I took part in the Singapore Marathon. Before the event, I went to a temporary toilet outside the National Stadium, and unfortunately overbalanced as I sat over the trench. After a struggle, I managed to save myself from falling in, but sadly my wallet tumbled down and fell into the latrine. I tried to retrieve it, but it was far out of reach, and submerged in a pit of filth, so with a heavy heart I left it there and set off for the race.
A couple of months ago I somehow lost my wallet near the Xinpu MRT station. When I returned home I discovered from my wife that someone had found it and brought it – complete with money, credit cards, etc. – to my apartment several miles away. The man didn’t want a reward.
Based on my own experience and copious anecdotal evidence from others, I can only conclude that honesty in handling other people’s mislaid belongings is much more prevalent here than it is in the countries that most of us hail from. Instances like those cited above tend to be exceptional elsewhere but are pretty much the norm in Taiwan.
Wasn’t there another thread on exactly this same theme just a few months ago?
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]Based on my own experience and copious anecdotal evidence from others, I can only conclude that honesty in handling other people’s mislaid belongings is much more prevalent here than it is in the countries that most of us hail from. Instances like those cited above tend to be exceptional elsewhere but are pretty much the norm in Taiwan.
Wasn’t there another thread on exactly this same theme just a few months ago?[/quote]
You have finally used too many words. I found a guys wallet in Vancouver. I called him from the phone number that appeared on a blank check in the wallet. He came to my house an hour later and gave me 100Cdn dollars. I accepted.
Oh…maybe there is a difference after all Omni…
[quote]
Wasn’t there another thread on exactly this same theme just a few months ago?[/quote]
Yup, some fool left his briefcase on the bus. Full o’ valuables too. Recovered the next day without incident. Yes, Taiwanese are mostly honest.
Dropped my cell phone four times (I know, I know) in taxis. Returned to me three times by the driver, who had to get out of his car and come and find me.
Once had a taxi driver whose taxi I didn’t take chase me down because I had dropped a disk on the sidewalk. That disk had contained a file I’d just spent several hours working on.
In business, I’d say about half of the people I deal with here are honest. Back home, it was around 20%.
One day while waiting for the bus in India a brief case fell off the back of a passing scooter, unbeknownst to the driver. After risking life and limb to pick it up off the street, I stood at the bus stop wondering how to return the bag to it’s owner. A few minutes later the woman on the scooter returned looking for her missing belongings, and snatched the bag out of my hands, without so much as a nod of acknowledgement, let alone thanks.
To this day I don’t know why she didn’t seem at all appreciative; perhaps she thought I was standing there on the road trying to sell her bag or something! Anyway, I still don’t regret returning the bag, and wouldn’t act differently if it happened again. (Honesty is it’s own reward!) Sometimes people can be so enigmatic.
You sound like the Buddha! But good story nevertheless!
If you can afford a NT$20,000 scarf, losing it would be an insignificant event.
I find it amusing that the kind of stories here are exactly the kind of stories that Taiwanese people tell about other countries. Yesterday a Taiwanese coworker was going on and on about how honest people in Japan were compared to Taiwan. A quote: “Why, if you drop something in a taxi or on the bus, people will return it! That would never happen here in Taiwan.” When I told him that Westerners tell stories like that about Taiwan, he laughed in astonished disbelief.