Rat Publicly ‘Shamed’ for Stealing Rice in China

The Internet is a really wonderful place. It’s not only a place to find information or to showcase your 'lavish' lifestyle, it’s also a place where people enjoy public ‘shaming’ others for various reasons. The most common stories we’ve heard are of cheating spouses and captured burglars or thieves that were put through humiliating walks of shame bearing signs of their crime.

Recently in China, a ‘thief’ was caught by a convenient store owner. The perpetrator was put through the modern-day sentence when the shop owner decided to tie him up to a trolley and hang a sign over his neck. This thief though, isn’t your ordinary thief. He’s probably the size of the palm of your hand. Who is he? Well ‘he’ turns out to be a rat. Yes, you read that right. A rat being publicly shamed after allegedly stealing rice. Sounds so rat-iculous but, what a time to be alive, eh?

Smile for the camera! (Image: Jiu Lian Shan She Zhang/Weibo)

Obviously, this rat either didn’t graduate thief-school or had no kaRATe skills to wiggle out of this mess. Pictures of his public shaming were posted on China’s famous micro-blogging platform, Weibo, on January 23 and it went viral instantly. The photos of the rat caused an uproar – some being upset over the mistreatment of the mouse while others found it highly amusing. According to the uploader, Weibo user Jiu Lian Shan She Zhang, the rat was caught by a friend who owns the store.

Image: Jiu Lian Shan She Zhang/Weibo

The owner of the shop even had the time to change the sign as seen in the picture above. The sign said, “I swear I’ll never do it again!” It is unsure whether the little guy survived the ordeal but one thing’s for sure, he must be really popular among his circle of brodents now.