While it is okay when children believe in fairytales, adults falling for a happily ever after can result in rather amusing situations. An Indian doctor was tricked into buying an Aladdin lamp. Aladdin’s lamp is known in popular fairytales for bringing wealth and fortune, the folklores state that the lamp contains a wish-granting genie when it is rubbed. The Police in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state has taken two men into custody. These two men made an elaborate plan to dupe an Indian doctor into buying what they claimed was a real Aladdin’s lamp. The Indian doctor happily secured a deal for $930,000 in exchange for the wealth and good fortune that the lamp was to bring.
Indian doctor tricked into buying Aladdin’s lamp
After realizing that he had been duped, Dr. Laeek Khan approached the Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. “The cheats had struck a deal for much more but the doctor had paid about seven million rupees ($93,000),” Amit Rai, a senior officer told the local news agency. He further revealed that the men had been arrested on Thursday evening. “The wife of one of these men was also involved in the fraud. She is on the run,” Rai stated.
In his complaint filed last Sunday, Dr. Laeek Khan stated that one of the men had pretended to be an occultist when they were persuading him to buy the lamp for eternal fortune. The man pretending to be an occultist claimed that he possessed a “jinn”, the name of a supernatural figure in the local language. The occultist claimed that he had trapped the “jinn” in the lamp.
Dr. Laeek Khan told the press that he had run into fraudsters when they were treating a woman he thought was their mother. “Gradually they started telling me about a ‘baba’ (priest) whom they claimed also visited their home. They started brainwashing me and asked me to meet this baba,” Khan said in dismay.
Fairytale gone wrong
Naturally being fascinated by the story of the priest, Dr. Laeek Khan allegedly met the priest “who seemed to perform such rituals”. Sadly, it was later found out that all these rituals were faked. Dr. Laeek said that during one of the visits where he met the priest, Dr. Khan asked whether he could touch the genie or take the lamp home for a while. The men denied this request by saying that the “jinn” might cause him harm.
Eventually, they secured a deal to sell Dr. Laeek Khan the lamp. They promised that the magical lamp would bring health, wealth, and good fortune. In today’s economy, can one blame Dr. Laeek for falling for the trick? Who wouldn’t want wealth and good fortune?
Dr. Laeek Khan mentioned that he later realized the “jinn” was actually just one of the men in disguise who was trained to play the role. “The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi. The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees,” said officer Rai.
