AN INGENIOUS SWINDLER.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 38, 3 December 1920, Page 6

AN INGENIOUS SWINDLER.

The offer of a rewax*d of 25 centimes for the body of each rat killed in Pari3 has not been long in producing the inevitable swindler. The authorities had specified that tails were insufficient and that the bodies must be delivered whole in order to prevent the possibilities of swindling. A bright individual, however, had been delivex'ing tails — which, it now appears, were fabricated pieces of string and skin— at the rate of 50 tails dai y since the opening of the rat oftensive. When asked for the bcdies he explained that he had discovered a new rat ioo which exploded after a few hours, leaving only the tails of the vermin as evidence. The e^planation for a while was accepte , but the swindler has now been arrest In his house 7000 artifieial tails have been found.