Chinese farmers’ offer of free radishes for locals goes viral … costs them US$42,000
- Thousands of looters travel from miles around to strip field of 500 tonnes of white radishes after growers tell their neighbours it’s OK to ‘take a few’
- Police overwhelmed by a torrent of freeloaders, some of whom even live-stream the event
When three farmers from central China told their neighbours they could help themselves to a bag or two of their newly grown white radishes they had no idea it would end up costing them their entire crop worth 300,000 yuan (US$42,600).
Within hours of the offer being made, thousands of people had descended on a field in the village of Diaowei, Hubei province and stripped it of 500 tonnes of the crunchy vegetable, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported on Friday.
Xu Jiuge, one of the farmers who lost out, said he had no idea how it had all happened.
“The villagers told us the radishes we grew tasted great in their winter soups, and asked if it was OK to take a few,” he was quoted as saying.
“They were our neighbours and we didn’t think it was a big deal so we said they could pick some … but I don’t know how it evolved into the rumour that all our radishes were free.”
