We experimentally investigate whether people generally perceive inheritance as effort-induced or luck-induced. By randomly matched strangers across two lab sessions, we test whether the data-generating process of opportunity handed down from the ‘first-generation’ subjects determines later redistributive decisions among the ‘second-generation’ subjects. On average, redistribution is highest among the ‘second-generation’ subjects whose chance of winning is determined by pure luck of the paired first-generation. We have evidence that people generally treat inherited opportunity that has been generated by effort in the first-generation as relatively fair. Our results suggest that people are likely to feel deserving of bequests and inheritance unless the randomness of inheritance has been made salient to them.