A recent Kerela lottery situation with 12 crores at stake went something like this (I will give character description later, just go with it for now):

Kerala lottery department: The winner is TE 645465.

Ahmed: Saithalavi, look TE 645465 is the winner, here is a picture of it on Facebook.

Saithalavi: Haha, I think I am going to tell everyone I bought it bro.

Ahmed: That’s completely unnecessary bro.

Saithalavi: It will be fun bro.

Ahmed: Bro….

Indian Express Malayalam

The dialogues are made up but they can’t be too different, because this is exactly what happened. Saithalavi, a man living in Dubai, went and told everyone that he was the winner of the lottery and that he had bought the ticket through his friend Ahmed, who had sent the picture to him.

What Saithalavi did not factor in, was the fact that 12 crores is a big amount. Especially when you win it by a random stroke of luck.

NDTV

Soon, news channels started hounding him for comments, and realising that it’s too late to back out, he thought he might as well just tell them what he will do with that money.

However, there is something else Saithalavi did not factor in – if he is not the winner, someone else would be. And that person is sure as hell going to turn up for the money.

Which he did. 

Now, things got intense and Ahmed got annoyed. He told everyone Saithalavi was joking. Saithalavi said he was not.

The third thing Saithalavi did not factor in – people are not idiots. Not all of us anyway. 

Beyond a point, it was clear that he was lying and it was just a matter of when he will admit to it. That happened 2 days later, when he said “it was a joke that went too far”.

NDTV

The entire thing panned out in a series of incidents that seem like a plot out of an Abbas–Mustan movie, and I, for one, love it.

At one point, people even started a crowdfund for the guy, thinking that he lost out on money because of some confusion.

I think that money should go to Ahmed for putting up with all this.

Actually, on second thought, this could be a Priyadarshan movie. Malamaal Weekly- 2.