Some say that character is what you do when no one is watching.

We put that theory to the test to see how people would behave if money was dropped in front of them. Although our test was not scientific, it was quite revealing.

We casually dropped a $10 bill while walking down busy streets in downtown Vancouver. Seven out of seven times, the money was picked up and returned. Some even ran after me. Even on a crowded street, the money was noticed dropping from my pocket.

However, when we moved to a quieter location and dropped the money in front of a lone individual, only one person seemed to notice and return it to me.

“They are varying levels of honesty,” Simon Fraser University Social Psychologist Ehor Boyanowsky told CTV News.

It’s called "reward and punishment." Will someone see you? Is it enough cash to go against what you consider to be the "right thing" to do? Or will you be challenged?

When we confronted the people who pocketed the cash, or mentioned that I dropped something, the money was immediately handed back. What was interesting is one woman -- who quickly handed it back -- said she didn’t see me drop it, when all I had asked was, “Do you have something that belongs to me?”

Another man who pocketed the money and walked by me heard me on the phone saying, “I dropped it.”

He was a few feet in front of me but stopped, whipped the $10 out of his pocket and handed it to me.

"You just confirmed that you dropped it, so that kicks in his social obligation to return the money,” Boyanowsky opined.

In another case, a woman who pocketed the $10 bill lied and said she didn’t pick it up.

We can’t say that the people who handed the money back on a busy street would have acted differently if no one was around, but we also can’t discard the stark contrast to what happened with others in the quieter location.

"The power of surveillance -- and surveillance by your community, not by cameras -- it’s the most powerful thing there is to control behaviour,” Boyanowsky said.

What would you do?