To buy lip studs and earrings worth ₹720 (60 yuan), a teenage girl in China’s Shanghai sold her mother’s jewellery worth a whopping ₹1.22 crore (1.02 million yuan).
According to a South China Morning Post report, the teen, surnamed Li, had mistaken her mother’s valuable jade bracelets, necklaces, and gemstones for fakes.
Li, who is believed to be undergoing a phase of “adolescent rebellion”, sold the “fake” jewellery to a jade recycling shop.
The mother, Wang, only discovered that the jewellery was missing when it was too late, and Li had already sold it at a local market.
Wang said she has “no idea why” Li wanted to sell it. However, she said, Li had told her she needed money that day. When Wang asked her how much, Li said, ‘60 yuan.’
“I asked why, and she said, ‘I saw someone with lip studs, and I thought they looked great. I wanted one too,” Wang explained to the police.
“She said that the lip stud cost about 30 yuan, and they will give me another pair of earrings for 30 yuan, so 60 yuan total,” Wang added.
What happened next?
The South China Morning Post report said the police launched a swift investigation into the matter after receiving the report of the incident.
They reviewed surveillance footage and coordinated with market management, and within hours, the police located the stolen items and arranged for them to be returned to Wang.
“The shop owner was out that day, so we contacted them by phone and arranged for them to come to the police station for further coordination,” South China Morning Post quoted police officer Fan Gaojie as saying.
Here’s how netizens reacted:
According to the South China Morning Post‘s analysis of Chinese netizens’ reactions, social media users expressed sympathy for the teenager and parenting suggestions for her parents to avoid a theft-like situation.
A user said “if the family owns a million-yuan worth of jewellery, why not give the child some pocket money?”
“Giving minors pocket money to get lip studs? As a college student, I cannot support that,” said another user.
“Adolescents need to communicate with their parents. Stealing from your family is still theft. This is a failure in parenting, not an excuse to blame teenage rebellion,” said another user.
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