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Guess what happened when money flew around on a road in Thailand...

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An absent minded employee left a wad of currency notes on a lorry and drove off, and soon the money was fluttering around on a road in north-eastern Thailand.

An online video shows people picking up the cash.

And guess where most of it ended up - back with the owner.

The incident happened in Khon Kaen, according to media reports.

TikTok user Sutasinee Buachaban put up the video on Oct 25.

It shows people collecting the money from the road and handing it over to a woman.

The whole thing seems cheery and good natured, with a sense of community, as motorists slow down and some people try to direct the traffic as others pick up the notes. 

A close-up of one bunch of currency shows 1,000 baht notes, each worth about S$37.

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SUTASINEE BUACHABAN / TIKTOK

It was reported that the money belonged to a man named Suporntip Phakdi.

He had handed over 100,000 baht to an employee, who placed it on the step of the lorry, forgot about it and drove off to buy some tapioca.

The man was very remorseful and it appears that his boss has forgiven him for the lapse.

Of course that must have been a bit easier because more than 90 per cent of the money was recovered.

It was reported that 92,000 baht was returned, with the help of the police.

@sutasineebuachaban ขอบคุณพลเมืองดีทุกคนด้วยนะคะ ตอนนี้ประสานเจ้าหน้าที่และส่งคืนเจ้าของเรียบร้อยแล้วค่ะ #เงินหล่น #พลเมืองดี ♬ เสียงต้นฉบับ - Sutasinee Buachaban

This is not really surprising because experiments have shown that many people are likely to return money they find.

Reader’s Digest has tried dropping a dozen wallets each in 16 cities and found that almost half of the total were returned.

In Helsinki, Finland, all but one of the 12 were returned.

Mumbai, the only Asian city on the list, came in second, with nine of the 12 returned.

It seemed though that you were least likely to get your lost property back in Lisbon, Portugal, where it was just one of the 12.

A much larger study involving 355 cities in 40 countries found that people were more likely to return a wallet containing cash, it was reported in 2019.

More than half of lost wallets were returned if they contained cash, but only 40 per cent were returned if they did not.

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