Behold, I Am a Dry Tree

Jesse Walker | November 13, 2006

In India, the taxman has a new weapon:

Tax authorities in one Indian state are attempting to persuade debtors to paying their bills -- by serenading them with a delegation of singing eunuchs....

The eunuchs collected about 400,000 rupees on their first day of work, authorities said, sharing 16,000 rupees (£188) amongst themselves.

The BBC attributes the eunuchs' success to the fact that they "are feared and reviled in many parts of India, where some believe they have supernatural powers." I suspect it has more to do with good old-fashioned shame, and perhaps the subtle reminder that the government could always take more.