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Majlis of Pursuit
AR
A hand hesitating above a wallet lying on a rain-wet street at night
Illustration

Thought experimentEthics10 min

Would you do the right thing if nobody would ever know?

A thought experiment in five tests. Each one removes a reason to behave well — witnesses, reputation, punishment — until only one question is left: why do you do what you do?

Step 01
14%

Step 01

Test one: the wallet

A leather wallet lying on a wet, empty cobbled street at night under a single streetlamp.
Illustration created for this experience. Not a historical image.

It is late. The street is empty. At your feet lies a wallet: cash, a bank card, an ID with a stranger's face.

There are no cameras. No one saw you stop. Whatever you decide, nobody will ever know.

This experience runs five tests. There are no right answers to tick — only your own reasons to notice.

Question

Honestly — what do you do?

Sources in this experience

  • Republic, Book II (359c–360d) — Plato, c. 375 BCE

    trans. Benjamin Jowett (public domain)

    View source
  • Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting — Melissa Bateson, Daniel Nettle & Gilbert Roberts, 2006, Biology Letters 2(3): 412–414 View source
  • Artificial surveillance cues do not increase generosity: two meta-analyses — Stefanie Northover, William Pedersen, Adam Cohen & Paul Andrews, 2017, Evolution and Human Behavior 38(1): 144–153 View source
  • The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance — Nina Mazar, On Amir & Dan Ariely, 2008, Journal of Marketing Research 45(6): 633–644 View source
  • Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book of Revelation, ḥadīth 1 — al-Bukhārī, 9th century

    Also in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. English wording follows the translation in an-Nawawī's Forty Ḥadīth, trans. Ibrahim & Johnson-Davies.

    View source
  • The Qur'an

    trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem (Oxford University Press, 2004)

    View source
  • Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn — book on intention, sincerity and truthfulness — Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, c. 1100

    Book and translation reference to be verified before review.

  • Nicomachean Ethics, Book II — Aristotle, 4th century BCE View source
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