Once you get outside the first world brides seem to be the norm -- every person I know who does international work has a story about having to bride somebody, especially if you need to get something through customs quickly, or at all. It's funny, you just make a bare effort to make it seem official and they'll get you right through.

One guy would keep cash in a hidden pocket in his suitcase and if customs gave him trouble he'd politely inform them about the pocket they didn't check and everything would get resolved.

Another guy would be bringing in parts for his company and when things got held up he'd talk to the person of the appropriate rank and offer to pay the "expedited" fee to get things through, as these were very important pieces of equipment. There was no expedited fee.

Somebody else would literally just sneak them cash as they shook the custom officer's hand, but they had a working relationship and knew each other on a first name basis.

One person got pissed off and refused to pay a bride and literally just waited until they changed shifts and his stuff was released.

Why do you feel the need to submit this 4 times over 1 week?

• enraged_camel

  today at 7:49 PM

  It's a cool site. I like the concept a lot.

  With HN, often times things have to be submitted multiple times before they get noticed and "stick" and generate interesting discussions. It's very dependent on luck, and there are no rules against it AFAIK (aside from what the spam detector flags).

  • tallanvor

    today at 7:55 PM

    Rules generally come around due to bad behavior, which I would suggest submitting the same thing every other day for a week constitutes. It's also a very niche topic, even for this site, and not particularly useful or interesting.

    • enraged_camel

      today at 8:12 PM

      You are not the arbiter of what is useful or interesting. India is a massive country and this site has a lot of Indian users.

Good lord, that this is necessary is so depressing.

• neverenderr

  today at 7:36 PM

  Yeah, man, depressing yet the truth.

this is just crowd sourced data? Looks vibe coded. And immediately asking for donations for a short Claude job, pretty sus?

Just curious, but did any specific anti-corruption campaigns from history in other nations inspire the design here at all?

Just wanted to let you know Twitter, GH, and RSS icons fall behind the nav bar at least on mobile.

Direct homepage - https://bribes.fyi/

Also set up a support link for anyone else who'd like to help keep it running: https://bribes.fyi/support

• verve_rat

  today at 7:34 PM

  I'm a little disappointed that https://bribes.fyi/bribes doesn't redirect to that support page to be honest.

  When I saw the name/tag line I thought this would be a travel advice site, but I like this so much more. Great work.

  • blitzar

    today at 7:41 PM

    > Donations don’t influence the data. Supporting the platform buys no special treatment.

    How disappointing.

What happens to you in India when you are charged builty of bribery? What are the punishments, if any? (for the person receiving the bribe, not the person bribing, obviously)

What are the differences between a bribe and a tip, given X cultural milieu?

• gnfargbl

  today at 7:38 PM

  Public servants should neither ask for nor expect either?

• woadwarrior01

  today at 7:39 PM

  aka Baksheesh in the Middle East

Another discussion about corruption in India from 2019: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20088870

I'm glad that bribery only exists in India and not in the United State. /s because Poe.

need one for southeast asian countries and eastern europe

If it is satire, bravo.

If sincere, congratulations.

• neverenderr

  today at 7:10 PM

  It is sincere, btw, thanks.

  • tyre

    today at 7:30 PM

    What do you think lend itself to this culture and how will it change? Is it considered normal / unsurprising / accepted? Like, “just cost of doing business”?

    • ImHereToVote

      today at 7:35 PM

      A cultural revolution.

      • neverenderr

        today at 7:38 PM

        Just trying my best.

    • toomuchtodo

      today at 7:34 PM

      > how will it change

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-corruption_campaign_under... is a potential example

    • micromacrofoot

      today at 7:33 PM

      tracking and publicizing them is a great start, bribes are easy to ask for in a fractured bureaucracy where the people taking them aren't closely monitored and the people paying them are generally uninformed

    • antonvs

      today at 7:34 PM

      Where do you live? Because “this culture” now exists at the top level of the US government, for example. And in fact, even before the current administration, it was an accepted and legal aspect of government, for example “lobbyists” who handed out checks to the representatives whose influence they were controlling.

      In the US, it’s only at much lower levels that this is at all frowned on, especially in government. In private business you’ll still find e.g. apartment managers asking for bribes to do their job properly.

      • verve_rat

        today at 7:41 PM

        And if you squint a bit and stretch some definitions... then tipping culture isn't a million miles away from bribing culture.

        What is a tip if it's not a bribe to not spit in your food?

        • Cyberdog

          today at 7:57 PM

          Former foodservice worker (in the US) for several years here. Servers do not spit in customers' food; that would be psychopathic behavior that no manager would tolerate and grounds for immediate termination, and the type of person who would actually do that is the type of antisocial person who is going to struggle in any job. If a known bad tipper ends up in a server's section, she'll roll her eyes in private, perhaps grumble to her co-workers, then go put on the customer service smile and serve them as normal.

          That said, please tip. Note that (where legal) servers are generally paid below minimum wage because it's expected their income will be supplemented with tips. Consider the tip not a bribe but as a payment for a service you were provided which, at least in the current cultural climate, is not being tacked on to the actual bill; you may not like that and want that cultural norm to change, but it hasn't changed yet and is unlikely to in the near future. If tipping really offends you, then order pick-up instead of dining in, or just cook at home.

    • neverenderr

      today at 7:39 PM

      [flagged]

  • lozenge

    today at 7:31 PM

    Has anybody reported a refusal and managing to complete their task? I just see 0% whatever I input.

    • neverenderr

      today at 7:33 PM

      Yes, some of them reported refusal reports. You can find them just on the right side of the Transparency map, State Registry Ledger; then you can filter out them by most refusals, or you can also just browse the reports.

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