Yes, it's true that's what one ought to do, but really, is it? I mean this from a humanist level, is it really beholden to us as a society to need the intervention of the police state for something as peer-to-peer as returning a lost bicycle? Who am I to judge I'm just a stranger in a strange land.

Back home in Toronto, we have this silly habit of picking people's lost clothing items and putting them up on fences and signposts in case they come back to retrieve them. Under these circumstances here it's safer to walk on by -- same goes with the bike in the generalized sense the burden of returning the bike gets far greater due to the simple fact that most people simply won't bother, hence the need for a gaijin hero to step in and set things to rights