"Who is this for?" vs "Who does this belong to?"

Yesterday I asked an Australian friend "Who is this for?" in reference to a wallet on his desk. He laughed and thought my sentence didn't make sense in the context of the situation. Instead, he proposed that I should have asked "Who does this belong to?"

Can someone help me understand the difference and whether my usage was correct or incorrect, or whether my friend's response to my query was warranted (at least conversationally)?

Solution 1:

If I were the Australian friend, I guess I'd have misunderstood the question too at first.

"Who is this for?" could imply the wallet was perhaps a present prepared for somebody. Almost like your friend put it there to be taken by somebody else. So he chuckled when he heard what you said. After all, there's was probably money and credit cards there!

Who does this belong to? is a good suggestion, now you're asking who the owner of the wallet is.

But I would prefer a simple

Whose wallet is it?