Archive for January, 2007
Welcome to the Honesty Blog! I am excited to start this blog because it deals with a topic I am very passionate about, Honesty!
A little background about me might help you understand the connection. I am the president & founder of ImHONEST.com, a non-traditional lost and found service whose success relies on people’s honesty. As you might imagine, people often ask me “Do you really think people are that honest?” My reply is, yes! Although, I can understand why people have their doubts when unfortunately our daily news is dominated by tragic stories, corporate scandals and dishonesty.
With this blog, I hope to bring trust and hope back to people by making public the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of stories about Honesty and Good Deeds.
This blog will also serve as a forum for anyone who has a story of their own they would like to share. Simply post your story by clicking the “Share your story here!” link. I will then upload these stories as blog postings.
Thank you for being a part of this blog and for sharing your positive stories about honesty and good deeds.
January 19th, 2007
This is my first blog post so I decided to begin with a personal anecdote. I will admit though that I found myself struggling to come up with one of the many stories I thought would easily come to mind. Then again, it probably shouldn’t surprise me, when most of the news I read in the paper, hear on the radio and see on TV is either bad news or gossip. It is as if good news and positive stories just end up at the bottom of the pile, obscured by negative news.
So, here is my first story about honesty…
This first story took place several years ago on a train to Paris. I had a few days off at the end of a business trip to France and decided to visit a good friend of mine in Paris. It was going to be my first time visiting this famous city, so I was pretty excited. 
After looking at the map on the wall of the train several times and confirming the next stop was mine, I rushed to the exit. When the train came to a stop, I pushed through the people getting on and those getting off, and at last I was in Paris. I began walking away when I heard a man shout from the train (I don’t think the shout was in any particular language, it was more like a “hey” type expression). I looked back and saw a man holding my laptop bag. My heart immediately raced as I thought about all the information I had in the laptop and how close I had been to losing it. He handed me the laptop and I thanked him profusely in as many languages as I could think of at that moment…hopefully, one of those was French.
I couldn’t believe I had almost left behind my company’s laptop and almost ruined my whole vacation. Thanks to the honesty of a stranger, I was able to enjoy the rest of my trip catching up with my friend and sightseeing.
(Photo Eurostar Group Ltd.)
January 23rd, 2007
One of our readers sent in this story about how impressed he was with the honesty shown at Davidson College.
First of all, great idea for a website! I love your passion for honesty and good deeds, well done.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of honesty is Davidson College where my wife went to school. She talked about their honor code and how much every student believes in it. For instance, if someone leaves a purse, camera, phone, wallet, etc., on a table or in an area, everyone leaves it until the person comes back and gets it. They NEVER have thefts and if they do that person is immediately expelled.
But I was also struck by the fact that many of her tests were given out so that they could work on them for a 24 hour period wherever they wanted to. And these were not “open book” tests. They weren’t allowed to use any sources for help and they all would pledge that as soon as they started taking the test that they couldn’t do any more studying for it. I am still amazed by that.
Sent in by Jeff Hilmire
January 24th, 2007
I heard this story a few weeks ago on CNN. It is a great story and also a bit humorous. It made me laugh because at least half a dozen times I’ve hidden money so well that later I can’t find it without having to tear apart the room. In fact, once when I was a kid, I put some money in a book and found it a year later much to my surprise. Unfortunately, hidden money doesn’t pay dividends or yield any kind of interest, not even if it is $3,000 like in this story.
A construction company, Wood Wise Construction, was hired by Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission to renovate a 
bedroom and bathroom for a family whose son was handicapped as a result of a motorcycle accident. During the renovation process the plumber made an amazing discovery in the floorboard, he found a sock with $3,000 in cash. According to story I found published in the Leominister’s Own Weekly Newspaper, the plumber’s reaction was “I thought I hit the jackpot”. He also realized that someone had put it there and that it should be returned to its rightful owner.
The owner of the construction company, along with his honest crew, made sure the sock full of money was return to the owner of the house. The honesty they displayed, I am sure, will not be forgotten by the owner of the house.
(Photo Wikipedia Commons)
January 24th, 2007
If there is one item I know people lose, it’s their sunglasses. In fact, I know some friends and family members that just don’t bother buying expensive designer or brand name sunglasses anymore. It would be hard for me to think of one person that I know that hasn’t lost their sunglasses. Ok, maybe my mother, just because she doesn’t wear sunglasses. In order to validate this assumption, I searched the Internet and found at least a couple of sites that had a report by the Bureau of Accessory Statistics (I didn’t know there was such an organization) that found Americans lose the most sunglasses in the world – that is over 1.6 billion pairs of sunglasses. According to the report, that would equal to 50 sunglasses lost each second or six pairs of sunglasses lost per American each year. Italy came in second place followed by Japan, Portugal and Iceland which also were in the top five countries that lose the most sunglasses each year.
I am not the exception, in fact just last year, I lost my favorite Oakley sunglasses. At the end of the Atlanta Lawn and Tennis Association (ALTA) City Finals (I was a spectator), I was helping the team captain carry some of the things to the car and since the sun was going down I took my sunglasses off and hung them from my shirt (bad 
idea). It wasn’t until I was driving off that I realized my Oakleys were no longer hanging from my shirt. Immediately, I panicked and thought how ironic it would be for me to lose my sunglasses especially that I hadn’t put an ImHONEST ID label on them. I could just hear it coming from those people that I had repeatedly told why they should label and register their portable valuable items.
I stopped the car and looked inside just in case I hadn’t dropped them while getting in. I ran back to where the car was parked and then tracked my way back to where I last remembered having them. I happed to look over at one of the tables just off the side of the path to the courts, and there they were. My first thought was “wow, those really look like my sunglasses” so then I asked the lady that was sitting their watching the match whether they were hers. She said she had just picked them up from grass next to the path and figured somebody might come back looking for them. I said “yes, they’re mine, thank you so much”. I thanked her at least a couple more times for her honesty. I walked back to my car happy to have my sunglasses and grateful to know there are still so many honest people. I also made it a point as soon as I got home to stick an ImHONEST ID label on my Oakleys so that if they ever were to get lost again the finder could report having found them.
(Photo Oakley Inc.)
January 25th, 2007
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