There is a small Romanian Orthodox church near my house that sells honey in the parking lot – $15 and $25 jars. It’s on the honor system. They just have a little box where you leave the money. You expect to see these type of stands out in the country – like for eggs or fruit on a family farm – but not in the heart of the city.

I have always been fascinated by these “honor system” gigs. Do they work? Do people steal the product and/or the money? I went by this past Sunday and asked members of the church what there experience had been. In over 20 years of having the honey stand, they said they’ve had no problems with theft! Was their experience unique?

Honest Tea, a bottled tea company (later bought by Coca-Cola), did an interesting experiment where they set up unmanned tea stands in cities across the country. $1 for a bottle on the honor system. Just leave your money in the box. They set up cameras nearby to monitor the thousands of people who visits the stands. The result? 94% of people paid for their tea. The only time a person actually stole money from the box was in Washington D.C.!

I did my own social experiment and asked about 20 people to guess the result in the above tea experiment. What % of people do you think actually paid for their tea? Everyone guessed significantly below 94% – with most being in the 60-80% range.

In the last 20 years trust has dropped more than 50% in the Western world and is at lowest level in modern times. This is in part fed by the constant barrage of exposure to bad behavior through the news and social media – that tilts our perceptions.

I am encouraged by the tea experiment results. It jibes with my experience in life. Over the years I have lost my wallet in public several times. In each case it has been returned – with all the cash and credit cards! Despite our fears and assumptions, trust quietly holds the world together. Every day, we rely on strangers more than we realize—from the barista to the bridge engineers to our car assemblers. While caution has its place, choosing to see

trustworthiness in others not only reflects reality but also shapes a world where trust can thrive.