If you see money falling out of someone's pocket, would you return it? Or would you keep it for yourself?

Despite the trying economic times, the answer for most KL-lites is apparently to return the money.

According to filmmaker Jason Lim, this was what he found during the shooting of his latest short film 'Greed: Which race is the most greedy of all?', where an actor 'accidentally' drops money on the ground while hidden cameras captured the passers-by’s responses.

He said the actor had dropped the money over 100 times - a banknote ranging from RM10, RM20 to RM50.

While he wasn't keeping a close tally of the responses, about seven out of ten passers-by would alert the actor and attempt to return the money. Even a beggar.

The remainder would take the money and walk away, and almost all would feign ignorance if later confronted about the money.

“On certain locations, we did confront the people who didn't return the money. They would very arrogantly say, 'No I didn't see any money drop out,' and they would just turn around and walk away.

“This is even though we have three cameras on their faces,” Lim told Malaysiakini in a phone interview yesterday.

The film 'Greed' was uploaded on Facebook and elsewhere on Thursday evening, and has garnered over 500,000 views on Facebook alone by the next day.

Greed - The Greedy Race

Greed|A Jason Lim FilmWhich Race is The Most Greedy of All?

Posted by Jason Lim Productions on Wednesday, 2 March 2016

It showed people from various walks of life reacting to Lim's actor and the money on the ground. Some took the money for themselves, but many others would return the money.

“It is not about religion, and neither (it is) about your skin colour.

“It's your actions that define who you are. It's your actions that speak louder than words,” said the film's narrator.

Hearteningly, the five-minute film, which lists the Royal Malaysian Police as one of the co-sponsors, closes with a scene featuring a beggar who is being put to the test. (Note: Spoiler alert)

Upon seeing the money, the beggar immediately stood up, picked up the money, and called the actor over and returned it.

Netizens' responses to the film were overwhelmingly positive, with many taken in by the film’s message and saying that they are touched by the film, especially by its final scene.

However, Lim was modest about the response to the film.

“It's okay, lah. It's a satisfactory amount because of the nature of what we are filming - humans,” he said.

Honest Malaysians?

He said the idea for the film was hatched about a week ago, and went ahead to shoot the film over the course of a day somewhere in Kuala Lumpur.

“Malaysian culture has always been an inspiration to me. It is always very weird and the people are very unsympathetic, and the empathy is not always there.

“I wanted to see how honest Malaysians are. It (the idea) kind of hit me and... ‘All right. Let's do this!’ ” he said.

He added that the film would have been more 'exciting' if some of the faces of those who took the money captured on film had not been blanked out.

He said there is a look of confusion and suspicion on the faces, as though they are conflicted about whether or not to take the money and wondering if they would get caught in the act.

Asked what became of the beggar in the final scene, Lim had this to say:

“We actually helped him by giving him money. We needed to capture that shot, so we couldn't simply give him the money. We really needed to catch the people.

“It is people who have less who give more. Once the film was concluded, we actually gave the beggar some money.

“It is quite a substantial amount, but we are not going to reveal how much we gave the beggar because it is out of our own goodwill.”