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SALT LAKE CITY — A refreshment stand opened up in Downtown Salt Lake City Monday, selling drinks and measuring honesty.
There was no clerk to collect cash from customers at the little store outside Energy Solutions Arena. The place runs on the honor system.
The man who set it up hid across the street to watch as patrons mulled over the choice: "Do I pay a dollar for a bottle of iced tea or juice, or do I just take it?"
The Honest Tea beverage company is behind this experiment to find the nation's most honest city.
"So far, Honolulu is in the lead with 99 percent (of the people being honest). Chicago is second, with 98 percent; and Boston, Dallas and Seattle are tied for third place," said Corbett Simon, marketing manager at Honest Beverages.
Simon says more than bragging rights are on the line. He claims some of the not-so-honest patrons have encountered bad karma.
"In San Francisco, one of the guys stole a bottle to catch the bus, but he missed his bus too," Simon said.
So how did Salt Lake fair in the experiment? Citizens here came close to the top with 97.7 percent of the people being honest with their purchase.
The city with the lowest honesty rate, so far, is Los Angeles.
