A Chinese man who got caught robbing a sacred temple numerous times told police he was only “borrowing” the money after Budhha “gave” him “an ok”.
The man, later identified as Ye Mou, gave the bizarre statement while being questioned by police about numerous reported thefts from the Shuangyan Temple in Yiyang, in the southern Hunan Province.
Ye caught officers’ attention after he was spotted going to the temple quite often and snooping around the donation box found inside.
They visited his home as they suspected he was the person dressed in a black and red T-shirt seen on surveillance footage.
When asked about the missing donations, Ye told officers he was the one responsible rather than denying the fact.
Incredibly, he defended his actions by claiming he was only borrowing the money after he asked the Buddha statue about it and interpreted its hand gesture as a sign of permission.
According to Ye, he would often go to the nearby ponds to wash his clothes on weekdays, and over time he found that the donation box was usually left unattended and unlocked.
At the beginning of June, because money was tight, Ye took some money from the box while there was no one around.
After taking the money for a period of time, Ye was still frightened someone would call the police.
Seeing that his act went unnoticed for some time, however, he continued helping himself to more of the donated cash whenever he could.
Ye was reportedly arrested and charged with stealing other people’s property.
He has been placed on a 12-day administrative detention.
