- Bribe Fighter
- 14 years ago
- 452 views
Stopped in traffic for liscense plate
I am a U.S. citizen who was visiting friends in Northern India in January 2010. We traveled from friends' village to Chandigarh for a day trip. While driving through town, we were stopped by policeman near traffic light - he saw me (I am white), waved the car to the side, and proceeded to tell the driver that our liscence plate was 'unreadable' because of a small paint chip to one of the numbers. When we went out to inspect the plate, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it at all. Despite our protests, he insisted that we must pay him 3,000 rupees not to be reported. My friend proceeded to get her mother on the phone and handed the phone to the officer. She berated him for disrespecting his country and his people - screaming "where's your duty? where's your hospitality? you are making India look bad and you should be ashamed." - at which he hung up, angry and embarrassed, and let us go.