Honesty

On my very first visit to the Middle East, over 10 years ago now, I left my wallet on the back seat of a hire car. Living in Liverpool at the time I had become conditioned to expect never to see it again, but it turned up next day with no fuss at all.

This weekend, after Ben's last rugby match of the season (soooo hot...), we went to Dubai Outlet Mall for a bit of shopping. I had to pop back to the car and walked off leaving the boot wide open. My camera, complete with expensive new lens, was sat in full view. When I got back to the car, two hours later, I was mortified to see the boot wide open and three man standing around. Thankfully, nothing had been stolen and the Security Guard had kept watch over it for over two hours in the scorching heat. He wouldn't even accept a small reward from me.

Just recently there was an article in the local paper where a cleaner in a shopping mall in Ajman found a wallet containing 55,000 Dhs (£10,000). In the same way as he had done with other finds in the past, he handed it in. This guy is on a wage of 750 Dhs (£130) per month. The tempation to pocket what is almost 7 years wages must have been enormous. The thing that struck me most about the story was that the rightful owner gave the man a mere 500Dhs as reward which he said he would send back to the family he hasn't seen in 2 years in India.

I'm not saying there is no crime or theft here, far from it, but there is certainly at a much lower level than back in the UK and there is a totally different attitude.