You see an elderly person stumble and fall. The age-old answer in this scenario is to go and extend a helping hand.
But not in today’s China.
Last August, the state-run Hebei Television Network highlighted the case of middle school student Xiao He assisting an elderly man who fell off his motorcycle in the middle of a road on a rainy day.
Xiao He told the station he was pedaling home on his bicycle when he saw the unnamed elderly man take a tumble. He hurried over, helped the elder to the roadside, and dialed 120, China’s emergency number. The elderly man, however, claimed the kid “came at me head on” and “tripped” him up.
As it turns out, a camera caught the incident and verified Xiao He’s version of events—the grainy footage showed that the middle school student and the elderly man never touched each other in the accident.
In recent years, the China’s senior citizens have resorted to fleecing complete strangers (and even the policemen, in one documented case) who help them to their feet from either real or faked falls.
Experts blame the rise of this phenomenon to declining public morals and living expenses, including health care costs, that many cannot afford. Often, the elderly who claim to have been injured seek hefty sums of compensation, and occasionally get their cash bounty if the case goes to court.
