There are videos circulating in Youtube of users intentionally dropping their wallets to test honesty in local people.
Have you ever tested their honesty too?
Bosses are largely dishonest here.
Also people would rarely tell you their thoughts straight to your face.
Landlords? Business people ļ¼ā car salesmenļ¼
Not particularly honest, no.
Sure your stuff wonāt get stolen,.mostly. I lost my wallet my cash was stolen in 5 mins I got the cards back though. I have lost a phone on a bus was stolen and turned off within 5 minutes.
Iāve had wallets and other stuff returned or held for me plenty of times fine.
These days you canāt steal shit in Taiwan without being on a camera somewhere. profanaptronym link below is the best reference.
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Honesty yes, also awareness of consequences and not wanting to deal with hassle:
On the street yes. Dropping it in a taxi drivers car might yield different results.
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Thats more than likely to be on camera too. So if you have the time and place, then the police can get the registration from the cameras on the street and identify the cabbie. The drivers are well aware of this. Its deniable for them though as they could just say that they didnāt find it.
I dropped a phone in a cab last year and it showed up at the police station on the same day.
My gfs dad told me he will charge for returning a wallet.
So not exactly stealing. But still, falls into the philosophy most Taiwanese live by of always trying to squeeze out some benefit for yourself, no matter how small and pathetic it is.
My wallet was left on a coach that hadnāt left yet , the passengers were still on the coach and it was handed to the driver after a few minutes. In that time all the notes had been removed. Maybe their āfinders feeā as you alluded to.
I was relieved to have all the cards I just left it, nobody was going to admit anything anyway.
I think it is more a fear of getting caught than honesty. People will lie to your face without a second thought, bosses will take every advantage they canā¦
But is Taiwan above average for property theft and damage (edit: in a good way, like leaving phones in a table when people go to order their food)? I would say yes, in places with cameras. @Explant has been robbed more than once IIRCā¦
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Theft in the countryside is very common , but I donāt think Taiwan is particularly worse than other places for that. In the cities theft is rare now, never got my car or scooter broken into, ever. Monkeys worst culprits for that now.
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Yes, more so if live in gushan distā¦ At least in Taiwan monkey do not have a boss (human) telling to steal
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Taiwan has rampant theft. Just not so much street style robberies/mugging etc.
Fraud, machinery/industrial/intellectual/raw material/agricultural etc etc type theft is a very big problem in Taiwan and always has been. This tends to affect companies and owners more than the enyday Joe on the street, which is probably why itās not on TV as much as how many McDonaldās fries ones get for XX amount of dollars. But it really should be.
There arenāt bars on windows of houses in Taiwan for no reason either. What today seems like paranoia was actually a legitimate concern not all that long ago. Same goes for insane levels of monitoring in Taiwan. Thereās just a LOT. What Taiwan gets right is they tend to abuse thus survalence state far less than certain other countries, and this allows people to have some trust in the authorities. It can go pear shaped at the flick of a switch, but for now it hasnāt. Nothing makes me giggle quite like one of those young up and coming gangemsters trying to show everyone how big his dicj is. Commits the crime, and within 24h just turns himself in lol. Everyone knows, the surveillance state here, especially when they get passed off, aināt a joke. Might as well give up and face the music and hope for pity. Those boys are so hardā¦
I donāt consider Taiwanese honest (one needs to look no further than basic business practices es and familydynamics here, in scale and in general. Nevermind theft, lies are a way of life here. People can call them white, justifications, or bending the truth. But they are lies. Which by proxy means not honest. There are extremely deep problems here that really need to be discussed more openly and without the usual fear of faceloss and ego.
Taiwan has 99 problems but a street mugging aināt one.
I have had a scooter stolen though. Its the knly non businwss related theft i think ive experienced . Was driven till out of gas and left there. Police say this is common, people just being lazy and want a free ride. I believe it. The massive amount of cameras found it, even though I didnāt notice it was stolen for over 3 months (parked in remote work location for when we need to go there by train).
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Landlords yes can problem. driving some businesses out of business
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Not intentionally as Iām not into playing mind games with people. But when I first came here I left my wallet on the bus (with my credit cards, social security card, electronic apartment key, new ARC, health card, school ID, about 3,000 NTDā¦ wouldāve been a total catastrophe to lose it). I thought for sure it was gone but checked out the bus yard hours later and the wallet was waiting for me there.
On the other hand, I recently had some Air Pods stolen when I left them behind at a breakfast buffet at a hotel. Yes, I know for a fact they were stolen because I had tracking enabled and later saw them traveling down some highway I had never been before and ending up in some township two hours away. When I marked them as ālostā, someone disabled the tracking. I was in shock I had actually had something stolen in Taiwan, but better to lose Air Pods than my wallet I guess.
Politicians resign in shame instead of doubling down. Thatās something I like about Taiwan.
They may not want to, but itās culturally expected.
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Some people say its more easy loss your umbrella than your wallet
NO
two examples went to jail, did not resign and fight the courts, many others to to jail. You do not stay in Taiwan so i guess not know this.
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Depends on the place and situation. You forgot your walet in the MRT? Chances are itās still there. Your phone fell down near busy places? Chances are some beggar might took them.
Bosses, landlords, motorcycle technicians? Yeaā¦ nopeā¦
I went to a lot of interviews and most of them just sees you as āforeignersā. Did you know if you work in Taiwan, they can just cut you off without any notice? And thatās considered legal here?
Also I got scammed by two motorcycle technicians back to back. Almost got swindled by a landlord by asking twice the price of the market thinking I donāt know shit. And some others who asked me to do it under the table (you find a Taiwanese friend to sign the lease for you). So not honest lol
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Not as honest as Japanese or Singaporeans. Taxi drivers are often scammers in Taipei, sometimes shops will try and rip you off also, at least when i was last there 3 or so months ago. Never had issues in other cities though, but Taipei has really gone downhill in the past 6 years (literally a borderline slum now lol) so no surprise
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Slum? Lol how?
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Two examples?
In the USA, itās everybody.