Many of us in India have had to pay a bribe at some point of time or the other, be it from traffic stops to getting some kind of official work done. Wouldn’t it be wild if there was a rupee note made specifically to troll those officials?
Well India actually has zero rupee notes floating around to do exactly that!
Alright, so they aren’t printed by the RBI, as you might have guessed by now. They were actually created in 2007 by an NGO called the 5th Pillar to protest against corruption.
The note has contact details of the authorities on the back, and the objective of it is to dissuade against bribery in any form. Citizens are encouraged to ‘pay’ the notes to government functionaries who solicit bribes in return for services which are supposed to be free.
The Tamil Nadu-based NGO actually printed millions of these notes in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Volunteers distribute these notes at railway stations, bus stations and markets in order to raise awareness about bribery, and their end goal is to eradicate corruption. There’s even a cheeky note within the note that says,
If anyone demands bribe, give this note and report the case.
You can download a printable version of the note from their website. Just don’t go trying to pass it off as actual currency!