The best places to lose a cellphone

If you lose your cellphone when traveling, just hope it will go missing in one of the "good" cities where people try to return it to you.

Reader's Digest decided to test the honesty of people around the world, so it had reporters in the largest cities in 32 countries "lose" 30 cellphones in each city.

The reporters then called each phone and, if a passer-by picked up the phone and answered, asked if the person would return the phone.

If the passer-by picked up the phone without answering, they waited to see if the person would call one of the numbers programmed into the phone directory to try to find its owner.

In Ljubljana, the capital of the European nation of Slovenia, 29 of the 30 phones were returned. (It also is one of the smallest of the cities tested, with a population of about 267,000.)

In Hong Kong and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, there were a meager 13 returns.

Perhaps a shocker for some is that New Yorkers proved to be an honest lot, returning 24 phones and tying for fifth place with Mumbai and Manila.

Here's the list, from best to worst, with number of phones returned in parentheses: Ljubljana (29); Toronto (28); Seoul (27); Stockholm (26); Mumbai, Manila and New York (24); Helsinki, Finland; Budapest, Hungary; Warsaw; Prague, Czech Republic; Auckland, New Zealand; and Zagreb, Croatia (23); São Paulo, Brazil; Paris; Berlin; and Bangkok (21).

Milan, Italy; Mexico City; and Zurich (20); Sydney and London (19); Madrid (18); Moscow (17); Singapore; Buenos Aires; and Taipei, Taiwan (16); Lisbon (15); Amsterdam and Bucharest, Romania (14); Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur (13).