How much would you pay to get out of a ticket? $10, $20, 20 liters of milk?

Last Tuesday, down the street from our CM&A church in San Lorenzo, a traffic cop stopped a young man, who was getting onto his motorcycle, and asked him to show his registration. The young man did not have his papers, so the cop asked him for a bribe in order to get out of the ticket. Usually a person can get out of a ticket here in Paraguay for $12, and usually the cop would rather take a bribe rather than write a ticket. In this case, the young man had only 10,000 guaranies ($2.50) on him to pay. The cop told him that this was too little, so the young man told him that he worked at a milk packaging plant, and that he could “pay” the bribe in milk. So the next day the young man returned with the predetermined amount of milk, 20 liters, and the cop returned the young man’s ID. But unbeknownst to the cop the man had brought the local TV station’s cameraman to film everything. Busted. A little while later, the cop with his 20 liters of milk scurried onto a public bus’ rear entrance to take advantage of a free ride.