Ximen Bao Drowned River Scam

Around 400 B.C., Chinese minister Ximen Bao took charge of Ye County in the State of Wei and found that corrupt officials, powerful elders, and a shamaness had built a tax racket around sacrifices to Hebo, the River God. They told locals that floods would come unless the county paid for a beautiful young woman to become the god's bride, then kept most of the money for themselves. At the ceremony, Ximen Bao rejected the chosen woman as unworthy of a god and ordered the shamaness, her disciples, and the three elders thrown into the river to explain the delay. Terrified local officials promised to stop the ritual, and the practice of river-bride sacrifices ended in Ye County.

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