A young woman entered a cafeteria in New York City, placed her suitcase by a table where another person was eating, and went off to get some food. Wh… - Jack Canfield

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A young woman entered a cafeteria in New York City, placed her suitcase by a table where another person was eating, and went off to get some food. While she was away, a young man came by, picked up her bag, and walked off with it. In only one out of eight trials of this experiment did the customer at the table make an effort to stop him. When the same woman again entered the cafeteria and placed her bag down by a table where someone else was sitting, but then asked that person to keep an eye on it while she got some food, her table mate stopped the young man when he began to make away with it every time. On another day, the same young woman visited a beach, spread out her blanket, left a radio on it, and went off, either saying nothing to the nearest bystander or else asking that person to keep an eye on her things. Moriarity got the same results. At both locations, nearly all of the bystanders she asked to watch her possession tried to stop the “thief,” but of those she did not ask, only a few — one in eight in the cafeteria and one in five at the beach — did so. 4 — Pryor Report, February 1992