Let us value honesty

[vgane]

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Let us celebrate the occasions of honesty displayed! Preferable if it is related to India..Global is also welcome!

Well Done! Mumbai!...A welcome change in perception about India

LONDON: India often finds itself embarrassingly high on the corruption index, rating among the most corrupt countries in the world. However, in a recent experiment, the country's commercial capital Mumbai presented a different picture. The ruse was a simple, abandoned wallet lying on the road, and recording how many people stumbling on it return it to its owner. This uncomplicated trick established Mumbai as the second most honest city in the world.

An average Mumbaikar returned nine out of 12 wallets he or she found lying on the road, each carrying Rs 3,000 in cash - not a small amount. The experiment was carried out in 16 cities across four continents with 192 lost wallets, dropped in crowded places like shopping malls, sidewalks and parks in cities as diverse as New York and Zurich. Each of the wallets contained a cell phone number, business cards and a family photo.

Those carrying out the experiment waited to see how many people from each of these places call back to return the wallet. Outside India, the wallet contained $50 or its equivalent in local currency. The experiment saw around 47% - or nearly half of the wallets being returned. Finnish capital city of Helsinki topped the list of honest cities returning 11 of the 12 wallets.

Interestingly, some cities generally believed to be safe and honest figured at the bottom of the honesty heap, for example Zurich, where only four out of 12 wallets were returned. London, too, fared badly with seven of the 12 wallets pocketed by the finders.

Only five of the 12 dropped wallets were returned in Warsaw and six in Berlin. In Prague, four of the 12 wallets made it back while in Madrid, 10 were never returned. Only a third of those dropped in Bucharest and in Rio got back to their owners. In comparison, eight of the 12 wallets dropped were returned in Budapest with a similar count for New Yorkers.

Residents of Amsterdam also returned seven out of 12 wallets. Lisbon in Portugal was the most dishonest city with one wallet returned and that too by a couple on a holiday from Netherlands.

 

[vgane]

Gems found from crashed Air India plane way back in 1950 & 1966 have been traced courtesy a French mountaineer who found emeralds, rubies and other sapphires in a box valued at over USD 332000..

Let us compliment the honest mountain climber!
Frozen treasure found amid plane wreckage in the French Alps - World News

Let us post such incidents of honesty in this thread!

 

[Brahmanyan]

Statistics are wishful thinking of the writers, depending on the questions and responses. Most of the sampling is done on conditioned atmosphere of locations and the size of the respondents. How many of these statisticians have ventured outside the Cities to enumerate.
However it is good to read such positive figures.

 

[vgane]

Statistics are wishful thinking of the writers, depending on the questions and responses. Most of the sampling is done on conditioned atmosphere of locations and the size of the respondents. How many of these statisticians have ventured outside the Cities to enumerate.
However it is good to read such positive figures.

May be sampling error caused India to be number 2..But let us not be pessimistic...It is good beginning, though!

 

[vgane]

Wow! A great experimentation with honesty...Appreciate this endeavor!

'Honesty shops' in schools to guide students on right path - The New Indian Express

 

[Iyyarooraan]

It feels good and is good to read some pep talks. Honesty has always been in minority. Beware of the majority.

 

[vgane]

I started this thread to motivate the minority...Can we be honest with ourselves to begin with

1. Be honest about your feelings...Do not try to shield your emotions..Let there be an outpouring of emotion so that you understand your self

2. Accept responsibility for your actions...Do not think that there will some one to save your skin for your actions

3. Face the situation as it is..Do not give any color to it...Do not duck for cover unless it is malignant

Once you become honest to your self, you will enjoy life..

You will get a feeling that the future is under your control...

You will get a feeling that you are the decider of your destiny...

No wonder Thomas Jefferson shared that Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom!

 

[vgane]

This too is honesty! May be fear of God helps us to follow the rightful path! Appreciate the honest of daily wagers & others for this! Well done!

Kedarnath golden crown recovered from debris - The Times of India

EHRADUN: The owners of a damaged single-storey building and a 14-member team of daily-wage workers recovered Bhagwan Kedarnath's sought-after golden crown from 200-metre-deep debris at the temple town on Wednesday.

The crown, said to be worth about Rs 30 lakh, had been washed away in the flash floods that struck in mid-June.

DIG G S Martolia said the golden crown, which was among the items used by priests to decorate Baba Kedarnath before early-morning puja at the Kedarnath temple each day, was unearthed while digging to clear the debris of a sizable part of the destroyed building.

"We're at a loss to understand how a golden crown that had gone missing in the June 16-17 catastrophe was recovered from underneath the debris during excavation near Kedarnath temple," said Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) CEO B D Singh.

BKTC chairman Ganesh Godiyal said everyone in Kedarnath was stunned the crown was found to be absolutely intact.

The temple committee's office-bearers and priests said the crown would be restored to its original place in the temple.

 

[vgane]

Got the title changed...You can post incidents of honesty in this

 

[DR.C.NARAYANI]

Hello ,Such a nice topic ,happen to come across now only ,even though topic changed for their incidents ,May be very TOUGH to imply but in due course of time,sure will yield good deeds,not only for credits ,will change the life pattern,one can get IMMUNE to the natural way of life living.In general opinion it can be doubtful to adopt us , since prior generations would have given their Bitter experiences ,so be Diplomat,do not commit,comment .etc. Actually few other meanings are been given in Tamil-on line dictionary, (for my surprise) Nermaiyana ,Kowravam??? .so let we come to what it actually mean.I Hope the thread grows faster.

 

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

Do we really value Honesty? Sathyameva jayete. Truth alone triumphs. If this was a Universal Truth at the time of Mundaka Upanishad, this would not have been emphasized.

Facts are never emphasized. Principles are.

Sathyameva jayete is a principle which is to be attained.

But the attainment of any principle has a cost attached to it. If there is no cost it is not a principle.

Long back Honesty was appreciated and rewarded in many cases.

Then came a period when honesty was ignored.

We have reached a stage when honesty is being punished. The cost in some cases is one's life.

Of course one always has to accept Honest people being called Fools. Pizhaikka Theriyathavan.

It is reassuring to read about honest people.

I was talking to a friend about the Swiss climber returning the jewellery. The friend said 'He has returned it because it is jewelley which is not easy to sell. Not because he is honest.' I was shocked.

Every time we discuss about honest people some one or the other makes a remark about the person being a coward or some such thing.

We have to appreciate the Honest person because he/she is very well aware that he/she would be called a Fool or worse even by his/her own family. That is the cost of being Honest. But it gives immense self-satisfaction.

 

[vgane]

My niece recently lost her cell phone in the bus! She was having it in her hand bag but probably she forgot to zip the bag & the phone might have fallen somewhere!

As she reached home & found her phone missing!

She had not noted the IMEI number also of the phone (It can be got by typing *#06# on the dial screen)

She almost lost hope of finding the phone when a good samaritan called her up to inform that she found the phone in the steps of the bus)...My niece got her phone back!

There are many such incidents that happen but we fail to recognise the importance!

I find displays in my colony notice board of missing purses, phones, watches (rarely) but how many notify that they received it thanks to some one!

I find the following news article interesting as it recognizes the honest act by publishing it! Can we celebrate such occasions of honesty?

Honesty Is Alive on Sunset Cliffs

 

[V.Balasubramani]

Sir,

Couple of years back, while I was in service, I used to travel by Electric Train to reach my Office. On one such day, while I was in the midst of an interesting article in Readers Digest during my regular journey, I found the train has already reached my destination. I got down immediately, alas! forget to take my bag which was kept on the baggage rack, containing keys and documents for the day’s meeting. By the time I realized my mistake, the train has promptly left the platform leaving the sound. Consulted the Station Master who advised me to catch the next train, go over Beach and search for the Bag. He even helped me by conveying ‘lost hand bag thing’ to the Station Master at Beach. Accordingly, I took the next train and reached Beach Station only to find to my surprise there were four trains and unable to identify the exact one in which I traveled. When contacted the Station Master, he pointed out his finger to a particular train which was searched by me. But, I was unable to find my bag in both First Class compartments. As there was an urgent Officers’ meeting scheduled on that day, I immediately proceeded to my Office with a prayer to God for safe return of the bag.

Usual hectic day passed on in no time. Evening came and only then it strike me that I need to take my vehicle parked at the Station, the key of which was in the lost bag. Telephoned to home and requested my wife to bring the duplicate key to Railway Station. I returned back to station and was just claiming to stairs when I received a phone call from a gentleman asking me whether I missed my bag in the train. I told him he is right and in reply he told me that he just found an unclaimed bag and opened, saw the Telephone Directory and contacted me. He came to the Station and returned my bag. On receipt of the same, I was greatly relieved mentally. I thanked him. Keys, papers and other belongings are very important to me. He was my savior on that day.

Lesson learn t: Even while you read book, have an eye on your destination. We do live among Honest people.


With regards


P.S: The bag itself worth Rs.1800/=leave alone the value of other belongings.

 

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

I am happy to receive a couple of likes for my earlier post. I think we should do some introspection regarding honesty.

Most of you would have either read about or heard the experience of the honest man who returns a purse found on the road. The owner checks up the contents and if somthing is missing will accuse the person who returns the purse of stealing. This attitude is so common that people are reluctant if not afraid of returning lost property. Of course you may advise the person to surrender the article to the police. Unfortunately our police are no better. One may end up in the lock up.

I recall an experience where I got into trouble trying to be honest.

In Chennai, we used to buy medicines from a Medical shop nearby. I used to send my servant at times to buy medicines. He would get a pucca bill. Once when he came back after buying a medicine, I found that the billing was wrong. This was a medicine which we bought regularly. So I knew the cost. But I found from the bill that the shop has billed short. I checked the price and found that I have been billed Rs. 120 short.

I went to the shop with our servant to report the matter and pay the money.

The moment the shop people saw me with my servant and when I started talking about the bill, they immediately said that the bill is all correct. They did not allow me to explain things as they assumed that I was talking about over billing.

I lost my temper and started shouting. It would have resulted in an ugly situation but for my servant who took one of the shop people aside and told him that I was trying to give them money. Things cooled down then.

I explained the position and paid the money. The shop people looked foolish to say the least. Of course they did not thank me.

The reason why I remember this incident was the remark made by one of the shop employees to his collegue as we were leaving

இந்த மாதிரி ஆட்களால் தான் நாட்டிலே மழை பெய்கிறது.

The best compliment I have received in my life.

 

[Naina_Marbus]

Dear Sri vgane:

The thread that you started is titled “let us value honesty”.

I notice that all the discussions about honesty seems pertinent mainly to ‘not coveting material that does not belong to you’.

What about honesty in human relationships?

Say X has a frigid wife, so X has a mistress in secret. If he tells his wife the truth, the otherwise smooth family life gets disrupted, to say the least. He still cares for his wife and family.Should he be honest and tell her the truth?

And what about dishonest people who say one thing in front of you, and another behind your back?

 

[auh]

I believe that virtues like honesty, sincerety, dedication, morality etc. do not (and will not) make any meaning to us without a higher purpose.

 

[vgane]

I believe that virtues like honesty, sincerety, dedication, morality etc. do not (and will not) make any meaning to us without a higher purpose.

Dear Auh,

What is the higher purpose that one aims for...While morality is a set of code of conduct put forth by a society or group or religious denomination, typically morality means not causing harm to others, valuing life and helping others...In fact the values such as honesty & morality go together...Honesty, truthfulness is the foundation for the pedestal of morality...It will help us maintain a clear conscience, if not anything else..It will help us get a peaceful sleep without any vestiges

 

[vgane]

Dear Sri vgane:

The thread that you started is titled “let us value honesty”.

I notice that all the discussions about honesty seems pertinent mainly to ‘not coveting material that does not belong to you’.

What about honesty in human relationships?

Say X has a frigid wife, so X has a mistress in secret. If he tells his wife the truth, the otherwise smooth family life gets disrupted, to say the least. He still cares for his wife and family.Should he be honest and tell her the truth?

And what about dishonest people who say one thing in front of you, and another behind your back?

Dear Sri Naina Marbus,

Honesty is a virtue which builds character...In case the husband cheats on his wife, if his wife comes to know about it, she will loose trust on him...He will loose the honor and good will...It is better for the husband discuss the issue at length with his wife to reach a consensus..In fact if he is honest and shares his desire both husband & wife can jointly decide something which is acceptable to both

In similar vein those who say one thing in front of you and another behind your back cannot win the trust of the individual...They too loose your confidence as they are dishonest...

Honesty gives us the spiritual strength to overcome any adversity

By being dishonest, you may gain some benefits but these are temporary and short lived

 

[auh]

What is the higher purpose that one aims for...While morality is a set of code of conduct put forth by a society or group or religious denomination, typically morality means not causing harm to others, valuing life and helping others...In fact the values such as honesty & morality go together...Honesty, truthfulness is the foundation for the pedestal of morality...It will help us maintain a clear conscience, if not anything else..It will help us get a peaceful sleep without any vestiges

Dear vgane, let me put it in a different way - conscience will not exist if one does not have any derived principles.

 

[vgane]

Dear vgane, let me put it in a different way - conscience will not exist if one does not have any derived principles.

Dear Auh,

What derived principles you are alluding to...

Everyone has some conscience..Only thing is the scale or standard is different for each of us..Suppose a criminal steals Rs 1.0 Lac and put Rs 10K in a temple Hundi to silence his conscience

A person who knows that what he is doing is wrong but still follows the dishonest route (black marketing, stealing, being corrupt) to earn money has his own excuses by which he silences his conscience

 

[vgane]

Today I read this article in Deccan chronicle

"Credit for whatever positive new initiatives that are under way go largely to a proactive judiciary, civil society and a few organs of the state that still remain largely autonomous and independent, including the Election Commission of India."

Tho' honest people are in a minority in India, that they have started to make an impact in our lives is itself a significant achievement!

Trading honesty for benefits | Deccan Chronicle

 

[vgane]

[h=1]Cops laud tailor's honesty[/h]
The Chennai city police appreciated Abdul Mustak, a functionory of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), for handing over Rs 50,000 to the police, which he had found lying near his tailor shop at Ayanavaram.

Last Friday, two unknown persons had claimed the bundle of currency notes, which was lying near Abdul’s shop, for themselves.


Abdul apprehended the two persons along with the money and reported the incident to the Ayanavaram police station. But the duo escaped before the police could arrive on the spot.


Subsequently, Abdul handed over the money to sub-inspector Kumaresan, who later found out that the money belonged to a carpenter named Devaraj.


Devaraj had taken a payment of Rs 2 lakh from a building contractor but had lost Rs 50,000 on the way near Abdul’s shop.


The police handed over the money to Devaraj and appreciated Abdul’s good deed.

Cops laud tailor's honesty - The New Indian Express

 

[vgane]

A reality about how our newspapers steal stories and credit to them selves...The Hindu and Business Standard are exceptions! Well done!

Sorry to know the state of affairs at Indian Express, a media behemoth ...Ramnath Goenka will not accept this & would turn over in his grave!

Today, honesty is a diminishing virtue

Karan Thapar, Hindustan Times

oday’s sentiments is about two newspapers I respect and read regularly: The Indian Express and Mail Today. This is also why it’s not an easy tale to tell. But should a journalist who discovers members of his profession are guilty of the same unethical practices for which he might have excoriated


others — and politicians in particular — keep silent because it concerns his fraternity? Surely not. Otherwise would that not be a case of unacceptable double standards?

My story begins last Saturday (September 7) when CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate interviewed parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath. The big scoop was the minister’s blunt and bold statement that if summoned by the CBI the prime minister will submit himself to examination in the Coalgate matter. As he put it: “CBI under law can question anybody and the PM is within the law. So if the CBI wants to question him the PM is part of the law.”


The interview was recorded at 1 pm. By 3 pm CNN-IBN began running news clips. By 3:15 pm excerpts were placed on the channel’s website and by 5 pm emailed to the press. The Indian Express and Mail Today were two papers to whom they were sent.


Imagine my surprise when on Sunday (September 8) I discovered that The Express and Mail Today had done identical interviews, with Kamal Nath making exactly the same point. Was this a coincidence? Or was it just conceivable they had seen the news clips and the excerpts and decided to put the same question to Kamal Nath so they could claim he had given the same answer to them as well? In other words, had they cleverly converted our interview into their own?


Curious but also upset, I telephoned the minister. He confirmed my suspicions. Shortly after CNN-IBN began running news clips, the papers contacted him and asked the same questions about the PM and the CBI.


Incidentally, the PTI also contacted Mr Nath but only for confirmation the interview was genuine. Once obtained the story they released gave full credit to CNN-IBN and Devil’s Advocate.


Not so The Indian Express and Mail Today. The Express published it as its own on page 7. Mail Today splashed it across the front page as the paper’s main lead. Tellingly, in neither case did a journalist claim a byline.



I felt this was unethical. In fact, to be honest, it felt like ‘theft’. So I smsed a complaint to Shekhar Gupta, the editor of The Express, and Sandeep Bamzai, the editor of Mail Today.


Shekhar didn’t respond. Sandeep did. He accepted what had happened was “bad form” and promised a clarification on Monday (September 9). It appeared on page 24. If I hadn’t known it was coming, I would have missed it.


Journalists will tell you this sort of thing is not just common but even rampant. Television channels regularly take newspaper stories and present them as their own exclusives. What’s so terrible if two newspapers return the favour?
Nothing much, is the short answer. Except ethics and standards suffer in the process. But in today’s India who cares about that?


At least two papers do. The Hindu and The Business Standard carried the same story, attributing credit to CNN-IBN and not claiming it themselves. That didn’t make the story less interesting. It didn’t make the papers’ journalism seem small. It just made the papers more honest.



But these days honesty, it seems, is a diminishing virtue. On that count, sadly, journalists can’t claim to be very different from politicians.

 

[vgane]

Tit for Tat in Honesty! An amazing story about how Honesty breeds more Honesty!

THIS AND THAT: In search of an honest man? Here are two | Aiken Standard

We have all been told that honesty is the best policy, but far too often we see people exhibiting just the opposite.
The ancient Greek Diogenes is said to have carried a lantern in broad daylight as he searched for an honest person.

Today it seems that all the light in the world might not be enough. But a recent incident has changed my cynicism.


Andy is a friend of mine. We have known each other for a number of years, attending the same church on Sunday mornings and seeing one another at Wednesday night dinners.


He is one of those folks who always has a kind word for those he meets, making his greetings the highlight of one’s day.
It was after a Wednesday dinner several weeks ago that I walked out to the parking lot in search of my car, when I saw an upset Andy sitting in his vehicle. He motioned me over and asked me to help him write a note.


Andy is almost always calm, so to see him fretting was cause for concern. He explained that while getting into his car, the front door flew open and struck the outside mirror on the Volvo parked next to him, breaking it apart and dislodging it.
Andy had no way of knowing whose car it was nor when the owner might return, so he was doing what he considered his only option – leaving a note and giving his name and phone number.


After Andy handed me the piece of paper and pen he was using, I completed the note describing what happened and put it beneath the windshield wiper blade of the Volvo.


Fast forward a week, and Andy approached me at church. The owner of the vehicle had contacted Andy and had given him the cost of replacing the mirror. He knew immediately the cost, because he had had to replace one of the mirrors already. The cost was well over $100, but Andy quickly wrote out a check and sent it to the gentleman. With conscience clear, but checkbook a little bit lighter, Andy thought the episode was over.


Fast forward another week, and Andy approached me once again.


“Read this,” he said as he handed me a folded piece of paper. “Can you believe this?”


With thoughts that Andy was being sued, I quickly unfolded the note and began reading. It was from the man whose mirror had been damaged. He wrote Andy to tell him that his mechanic was able to remount the mirror with minimal effort and the only charge was the labor. The man was returning the difference between the price he had quoted for a new mirror and what he was actually charged.


“Can you believe this?” Andy asked again when I returned the note to him.


Honesty has a way of being repaid. It doesn’t always come as we might think it should, but it is always repaid.


For Andy, his honesty in leaving a note about the accident was repaid by the honesty of a man who returned the unused portion of the check that was sent to him.


The car owner would never have known what happened to the mirror or how it was broken had Andy not taken ownership for his own actions. After all, it was dark when his door flew open. No one else saw it happen. He could have driven off.


That he did not says a lot about Andy’s character. He could not have lived with himself had he taken the cowardly way out.


The same can be said of the Volvo owner. He received full payment for a new mirror, yet when a new mirror was not needed, he could have kept the difference, and Andy would never have known.


His actions in returning the money say a lot about his character.


If you are in search of an honest man, look no further than our own community. There are apparently plenty to be found. Maybe Diogenes should have looked in Aiken.

 

[vgane]

Auto Taxi drives show us the way! We need more Anand's & Chandrahas's

Beltangady/Mangalore: Rickshaw, taxi drivers set examples of honesty