Valueless Money
July 3, 2019 8:57 AM   Subscribe

Zero Rupee Note Also: Wikipedia.

I came across this today in my RSS feed and it piqued my interest.
posted by kathrynm (10 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wouldn't have thought there would be much interest in zero rupees.

...I'll show myself out.
posted by Dysk at 9:06 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


Is the Modi government changing the money again? This is going to be even less popular than last time.
posted by Bee'sWing at 9:14 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


For larger bribes would you pay with more notes?
"I demand 100 zero rupee notes for this service!"
posted by bhnyc at 9:21 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


Wow - less than 18 hours between this being a Jeopardy question, appearing on a random website, and then showing up on MetaFilter. That must be a new record!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:21 AM on July 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


It's like the Good counterpoint to the Evil 'fake banknote that's actually a message about Jesus' thing that you see supposedly left in lieu of a proper tip.
posted by Dysk at 9:23 AM on July 3, 2019 [7 favorites]


Richard Stallman used to have $0 bills printed out, I think with a gnu as the face. It was a joke he found hilarious but he wouldn't accept the explanation that leaving them as tips at Chinese restaurants was likely to leave the wrongest impression.

The blasted things looked too much like hell money.

I will say that counterfeiting for purposes of thwarting bribery is something that hadn't occurred to me, though.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:51 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


The blasted things looked too much like hell money. (Wikipedia)

But they're covered with messages about the purpose of un-currency, so it looks to be rather a different thing.

Made by 5th Pillar, an International non profit organization that uses the Zero Rupee Note and the RTI Act of 2005 (Wikipedia) to empower those affected by corruption so that they get services without paying bribes or encountering delays.

There's more to this than the jokes about non-money.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:01 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


so what is the use case of these? Is the idea that someone would "bribe" someone with these, then seeing the 0 note would cause the official such shame that they do what they are supposed to do anyway? Seems like an opportunity for retaliation instead.

I'm curious to hear how these are used.
posted by rebent at 11:08 AM on July 3, 2019 [2 favorites]


so what is the use case of these? ... fold up a wad of these to do the payoff, get the benefit of a minor functionary one will never see again, quietly chuckle that evening when the official tallies his take, be sure to record the serial numbers to know how quickly it cycles back through your graft cycle.
posted by sammyo at 1:32 PM on July 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


What about rupees that carry a negative value?
posted by JHarris at 4:03 PM on July 3, 2019


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