Purses on the floor
A handbag or wallet placed on the floor lets money walk away.
Luck superstition
Money superstitions
Money superstitions: never keep an empty wallet; a spider in the house brings money; do not hand over an empty purse as a gift. First recorded: Varies; the itching-palm version from Roman sources. That makes it around 2,000 years old — joint 15th oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Roman era see the history below
- Written down in
- 1867 Harland and Wilkinson, Lancashire
Record: John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867).
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Varies; the itching-palm version from Roman sources
That makes it
around 2,000 years old
Rank by age
Joint 15th oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Luck
Money attracts superstition because the outcome is visible, the cause is not, and the stakes are high — the same conditions that produce gambling rituals.
Why it stuck. Income is genuinely unpredictable for most people, and unpredictable outcomes with high stakes are where superstition reliably forms.
14 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 18 later, while 12 share its date.
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Primary source
As it was written down in 1867
“if you have money in your pocket the first time you hear the cuckoo, you will never be without all the year.”
John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867) — read the original text.
One of the money omens recorded in Lancashire in 1867: coins in your pocket when you first hear the cuckoo in spring.
The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
Gifting an empty wallet
A wallet or purse given as a present should contain a coin, so it never stays empty.
Paying in the evening
In parts of Eastern Europe and Asia money is not lent or paid out after dark.
Found money
Finding money is lucky only if you keep some of it; spending all of it at once gives the luck away.
How the bad luck is traditionally undone
If a bag is put on the floor, some people tap it three times or pick it up and put it on a chair straight away.
Where it lives today
Money rituals are common even among people who say they are not superstitious — the coin in a gifted wallet is widely followed.
What people say
Never keep an empty wallet; a spider in the house brings money; do not hand over an empty purse as a gift.What is going on
The empty-wallet rule is the only one with a plausible basis — it is a habit of keeping a reserve, dressed as luck.Where it applies. Chinese money customs are the most elaborate, tying amounts to homophones: 8 sounds like prosperity, 4 like death.
Other luck superstitions
Nearest in age
Money superstitions are joint 15th oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Money Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/money-superstitions/
For Wikipedia
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