Leave a camera on a mountaintop, and chances are, you'll never see it again. But a college student believed that people were better than that, and set up a creative experiment to test out his theory.
Leave a camera on a mountaintop, and chances are, you’ll never see it again.
But 24-year-old Paul Bellis Jones, a university student from Wales, believed that most people were better than that.
“I was speaking to a friend who said you can’t trust anyone, anywhere these days,” Jones told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t want to believe that so I set up this experiment to found out what might happen and proved you can trust people.”
Bellis decided to put his faith in humanity to the test by hiking up a mountain called Snowdonia, taking a photo, and leaving his camera behind. There was one catch to his plan: he’d also attached a note to the camera, asking other hikers to take photos of themselves and then leave the camera there until the roll was empty. He also included his address, in case someone would be nice enough to return the camera to his home after the roll of film was finished.
Four days later, Jones got a visit from a Snowdonia park ranger, who’d come to personally return his camera. After Jones got the film developed, he saw that his fellow hikers had followed his instructions to the letter. 30 people had each taken photos of themselves at the Snowdonia peak—some featuring traditional poses, others on the goofy side. From viewing the collection, it was evident that all the hikers had enjoyed the experiment.
As for the park warden, Brian Jones, “I found the camera and thought it had been lost until I saw the note,” he said. “I was passing his home and just dropped it off. I’m glad the photos came out fine.”
Check out some of the photo collection at the Daily Mail.