China: Rat tied up and shamed' for stealing rice

Zhuhai city: In a bizarre incident, a rat was tied up to a trolley and ‘shamed’ after it was caught stealing rice from a convenience store in Zhuhai city, Guangdong.

According to a report on Daily Mail, pictures of the rat being tied to a trolley with a post-it note stuck on it went viral on China’s micro-blogging website, Weibo.

The user who had posted the pictures said that his friend had found the rat at a convenience store, and also wondered how the rat would spend his Lunar Year as he was shamed.

The post-it on the rat, written from the rat’s perspective, seemed like a taunt at the owner, saying that it wouldn’t admit that it stole the rice even if it was beaten to death.

However, the rat seemed to be more submissive in the second picture, where it had a different post-it that read ‘I dare not do it again.’

The owner, Lin Tiancai, of the convenience store, said that the notes had been written by his staff. He also said that he was surprised by the reaction the pictures were receiving on social media, adding that it was a small incident and that it was just a rat.

The humour was not lost even on the Shenzhen Traffic Police department, which had posted smiling emojis on the post in response.

Earlier, in January last year, a Chinese couple had filmed themselves tying up a mouse and ‘interrogating it’ for allegedly ‘stealing’ bananas.