That reminds me of when my university kept sending me a $0 bill every month after I graduated. They kept sending them, so eventually I wrote a $0 check and sent it back in the business-reply envelope. I guess they were happy I had paid my bill because they finally stopped sending them.

I wonder how similar bribery culture is to tip culture. In the US where we tip restaurant workers, restaurant wages are often much lower than comparable positions in industries that don't have tipping, so much so that the difference is often explicitly included in minimum wage laws. Do countries with more bribery experience a similar effect, where the wages of police officers and other bribery-prone worker are much lower than they would otherwise be?

If so, that creates a pretty tricky equilibrium problem. Even if I think bribery is ethically wrong, I don't want to be in a position where I'm asking someone else to accept less than their "fair"/expected/equilibrium wage. Higher wages might be a prerequisite for getting rid of a culture of bribery, but at the same time, raising wages per se probably doesn't do much to reduce bribery in the short term?

Could negative currency be useful? For instance a fungible, negotiable debt instrument, registered on a blockchain so it can't be unilaterally destroyed. Put contractual language on it to the effect that "Registering acceptance of this note obligates you to pay $X to the U.S. treasury by date Y."

Bob buys an apple from Alice but doesn't have the cash, so instead accepts/registers a -$1 note from Alice, who now has less of a tax obligation to the treasury. A portion of the negative purchase price is for insurance and interest, so the positive price of the apple is a lower absolute value.

It could be a low friction mechanism for small loan transactions.

Zero-currency notes have been generated for most of the world: http://zerocurrency.org/

I don't think people actually use the note though. I don't see anyone having guts to give that note to policemen or government officials in India.

Everyone in India just like the US is scared of the Police and know not to mess with them.

Wow, thats pretty cool, I had no idea. I am a bit shocked that it works though.

I don't see how this is anything but a feel good idea. No one would even think of implementing it. Get pulled over by a corrupt cop and give him this note, he will make sure you pay him the bribe and then screw you over. Nothing but an intellectual exercise in optimism and hope.

I've never seen this note in India and didn't know that something like this existed.

The type of corruption that destroys societies, does not happen with notes changing hands.

Reminds me of this quote from Billy Madison:

"At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

Wonder if it feels as good to give zero rupees as it does to give zero points, or zero fucks.

Some weird and masochistic part of me wants to hand my passport to a US border guard with one of these tucked into it. Seems harmless but a dumb way to waste an afternoon

How much do I have to pay to get a Zero Rupee note?

How come most of the western countries have only little corruption? How come they did not catch the fever of corruption when previous generations practiced such crimes as slavery and colonialism? Does Judie-Christianity look down on corruption because it destroys ones own society while it is okay with slavery and colonialism because it destroys other societies?

> Only one side of the note is printed to resemble currency so as not to run afoul of counterfeiting laws.

Doesn't it? To know for sure we need to take it to the court.

Well, we Indians did invent zero!

Trier made €0 notes with Karl Marx images on them to celebrate his 200th birthday... Which they sold for €3 each.

https://www.thelocal.de/20180418/karl-marxs-birth-city-sells...

For some reason, this joke/meme came to my mind immediately when I read the Wikipedia page:

Me: I'd like a Coke please. Waiter/Waitress: Is Pepsi OK? Me: Is Monopoly money OK?

Zero bucks given.

> One autorick-shaw driver was pulled over by a policeman in the middle of the night who said he could go if he was "taken care of". The driver gave him the note instead. The policeman was shocked but smiled and let him go.

Too good to be true.

On another note, what people usually do (when they are asked a bribe) is to notify the vigilance officer. The vigilance department provides marked original currency notes powdered with Phenolphthalein. Once the official accepts the bribe, the vigilance enters the office and arrests the official who took the bribe red handed (literally). But there are ways to circumvent this by depositing the bribe indirectly to the guy(proxy) who sells tea outside the govt. office from whom the govt official later collects it from.

Interestingly, the number zero was invented in India

Hopefully people actually have the guts to use these with public servants.

Lmao. That's awesome. Just don't be surprised about people being disappeared down a dark alley.