Is the country mouse more honest than the town mouse?

Hi Victoria, charming story!

Have you ever read the book Freakonomics? There's an interesting chapter in there about the bagel seller that went in to offices in America and would leave his bagels there with a money box, putting faith in his customers to be honest.

Turns out he was also some sort of sociologist and collected data about the companies that were honest and those where people didnt pay up, or even stole from the money box.

The result was, that in large corporate offices, people are more likely to be dishonest - ie people wouldnt pay up when taking a bagel or the money box would even get stolen. In an SME the size of CW - people would generally pay up, but takings might be slightly down for whatever reason. And in a small office of say up to 10 people, sometimes there would actually be more money in the box than there should be!

I think its says social responsibility works in small communities but bagel theft is OK in a massive office - Its a victimless white collar crime! :)

I think it tells you that where there's more people to point the finger at the culprit is less likely to be found it. Smaller communities are not more honest the chances of getting caught or suspected are just greater...

Well, we used to sell damsons , at the top of our lane with an honesty box . The first few years were fine , but gradually we have found more and more get stolen . So if people want damsons from us now they have to drive down to the house . Shame , but there it is !

In this very rural backwater a new farm gate, downpipes (but not the gutters) from an empty house, and planters full of flowers have been stolen from this village in recent years.

When I was a young lad, over sixty years ago, we lived in a small country village, our front and back doors were never locked! In the village shop, we could collect our groceries and if there was insufficient money to pay for it all, "Never mind, don't worry about it, when you have the money I know you will come and settle up" was what the shop owner would tell us. A bit older and and a bit wiser, I would hear my father talking to friends and often one would hear "The World is going to ruin"!

Well people that is exactly what has now happened. No body trusts anybody else anymore, any way and which way, to make a fast buck, People now are far more selfish and to cap it all, the world now runs on greed and corruption.Sadly, there does not seem to be the heart or will to stamp it out anymore!

I hope the Daily Mail hasn't ruined it for everyone by publicising it! If the Pringles do go missing you'll have to share the blame Victoria...

I'll second Rich Edwards' Freakonomics recommendation. Turns out we humans are a funny old lot.

Life in a small town, example: some boys are messing around in Co-op and some eggs get broken. A shop assistant shouts to the rapidly departing teenagers "what on earth would your parents say ... when I tell them?"

Did you know that, outside London, you can actually start conversations with strangers? Even weirder, when outside London, a stranger starting a conversation is unlikely to focus on your money or their god, but will probably concentrate on the weather!

Last w/e I was at the Tolpuddle festival & there you could leave things outside your camper van & nobody touched a thing, there must have been thousands of us.

If you know everyone there can be less cause for suspicion, especially if you know who the most likely culprits are and can just go and tell their mum.

My boyfriend only moved to London two years ago and he and any friends that visit cannot get over the fact that everyone is so wary of one another in the big smoke. When he smiles and says hello to people on the tube they look the other way and edge down the carriage.

But I was born and bred in London and cannot for the life of me work out why I would want to chat to strangers on the tube or the street.

I spent two years living in the country and was tired of everyone knowing my business ( and worse still telling my grandmother). Bus journeys to school were purgatory.

If I have to lock my door to avoid such unwanted people dropping by unannounced it seems like a fair price to pay.

As for my shopping being left unharmed in a phone box, I bet half the things on my shopping list aren't even available in the Draughton grocery store.

Could the cause of the problem be the influx of South Easterners into honest unsuspecting rural communities ?

People who live in country villages may appear to be like cabbages, but they are not that green. First and foremost the newsagent knows what he is doing. He is advertising his wares, and inducing the people in the vicinity to remember that he sells them. Thus developing a dependancy culture. If he makes a manageable loss or the enterprise becomes unviable it won't really matter. He will have gained market research and will be left with a hard core of of valuable customers who will dutifully visit his shop.

With regards to theft, my experience tells me that average country people do not engage in petty crime. (1)They are not that poor, (2) The cost of being found out would be ruinous. In a small community they would be drummed out of the district. That is not to say that the Squire, or the Lord of the Manor would not act as if he was a law unto himself.

I was born in the country and can remember the time when everyone left their houses unlocked. The biggest fear in those days was that someone would sneak in and steal your wife or husband.

In conclusion may I proffer my explanation to Deborah as to why country folk have developed a habit of speaking to strangers. In my case it is an imprinted reaction. My formative years were spent on farms. There were no mobile phones or radios in tractor cabs in those days. It was routine to be sent out to cultivate the fields where you would not come across another living soul all day. If you did, it was a Doctor Livingstone moment. My worst experience of loneliness was when I ploughed a 200 acre field with a caterpillar tractor. It took me a fortnight, and although there was another tractor ploughing in an adjoining field, we never got close enough to be able to stop our tractors and have a chat.

Note to Townies.. please stay there. Those that move out here to the sticks because they've loused up their own domain should stay put and sort it out.

And when they do move here, yes cow shite smells, cockerels make a racket when the sunrises and yes, everyone knows your business,,, which means no one dies and gets left for months before being discovered.

Here in quiet Cumbria a number of wooden boxes with lids are placed strategically around the village,into which items are delivered daily for collection by villagers.We have some rich people from the South East who have bought the big houses,but they join in with local customs.