While it would be amazing if you could simply rub a lamp like Aladdin and summon a genie to grant you your every wish, most of us realize that such a thing is pure fantasy. Sadly, a doctor in India was not one of those people and he was forced to call police after allegedly being duped into paying $41,600 for a ‘magic’ lamp that held no powers after all.
- He was told the lamp would bring him “health and wealth.” According to NDTV, the doctor from Uttar Pradesh was told by two men that the lamp would ensure he was rich and in good health for many years to come. While they were initially asking for $200,000 for the lamp, he managed to get them down to a very reasonable $41,600.
- The doctor later claimed he’d been “brainwashed.” In his complaint made to police in Meerut, western Uttar Pradesh earlier this week, the unnamed doctor claimed that the two men had “brainwashed” him into the purchase and that he would never have bought it in normal circumstances.
- He met the men via a patient. The doctor allegedly met the suspects when treating a woman he believed to be their mother for about a month. “Gradually they started telling me about a baba (godman) whom they claimed also visited their home. They started brainwashing me and asked me to meet this baba,” the doctor recalled. He then said he met this “baba” and that she “seemed to perform such rituals.”
- The doctor reportedly believed Aladdin himself appeared before him. According to the report, at one point, the doctor said that he saw Aladdin himself appear in front of him (which makes sense since the men told him the lamp was apparently Aladdin’s). Sadly, he later realized it was just one of the men in costume. That makes even more sense since, you know, Aladdin is a fictional character.
- Two men have been arrested for the crime. According to Senior Meerut police officer Amit Rai, the men arrested for duping the doctor are guilty of pulling the same swindle on others. Another woman who is also said to be involved, perhaps the woman who posed as the “baba,” is wanted by police but currently unable to be found.
