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Darwin Awards
2009 Darwin Awards
Email a Friend Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Next Prev Random

Fool's Gold
2009 Darwin Award Nominee
Confirmed True by Darwin

(5 February 2009, India) Bachelor lottery agent Pravin Kuse lived with his brother's family in Vasai. His own house, an abandoned 100-year-old building, was located a few meters away.

Some legends hold that a pot of gold lies buried at the end of the rainbow, but Pravin learned in a dream that an ancient pot of gold was actually buried beneath his house. He decided to follow his dream and dig for that gold. He kept his plans private, to avoid a fight over the fortune.

The dream told him to dig beneath the staircase so after lunch, every day without fail, Pravin would take his spade and dig a little deeper beneath the stairs. The neighbors had no idea that days and nights of digging had resulted in a fifteen-foot deep tunnel. The innovative gold-digger had even rigged a remote-control toy car to carry a flashlight to assist him in the dark.

He was smart enough to control his lighting needs, but not smart enough to take into account the water table. One day the 32-year-old lottery agent did not return home, and his worried relatives lodged a missing persons report. Police discovered that the floor of the old house had caved in. The soil beneath the staircase becomes wet at a depth of 15 feet due to its proximity to the sea, and the unsupported walls of the tunnel had collapsed.

A few hours later an earthmover had excavated Pravin's body from the debris, along with a spade and the innovative mobile flashlight. The lottery agent's number... was up.

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Submitted by: Ishu
Reference: Mumbai Mirror

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The Darwin Awards Gift Shop

Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection

Hardback. 240 pages. Autographed.
$15
A fresh collection of magnificent misadventures! Lust, Vanity, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, and Wrath extract an evolutionary toll on the wicked. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own strange passion for jumping into rivers. Heed the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools.

This book includes more History of the Awards, Gordon's Law, and 10 discussions of evolution, including speciation and the role of verbal memes in civilization.

Autographed by Author!

 

 


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