It might seem obvious: It’s generally a bad idea to steal someones gun. And it would seem that this is something that most people are aware of. In Nong Kiaw however I met two Englishmen who had done just that and got briefly arrested for it.

Apparently this is what happened: They were in Muong Noy and had bought a raft and two paddles of some guy since they wanted to go down to Nong Kiaw the next day. Everything seemed to go well, when the guy who had sold them the raft suddenly appeared at their breakfast-table the next morning holding a paddle. The two guys, one in his early twenties, the other in his early thirties, thought that maybe he wanted to give them another paddle. “How nice!” they thought. Quickly they found out however that the guy was holding one of their paddles and wanted more money – 10,000 kip (One dollar). Of course they didn’t feel like paying again for something they had already paid for the previous day, so they argued until at some point the guy left – with the paddle in his hand.

Unsure what to do now, the older of the two British decided to steal something in return from the others guys hut. After all he knew he wasn’t home. So he went into his hut looking for something of value that he could take as token in the inevitable negotiations. And the only two valuable things he could see were a frying pan – and a gun. Not really thinking about what he was doing he took the gun and went back to his mate.

Apparently people were looking slightly confused at this strange farang who was carrying a gun through their village, but they were probably less concerned than the second English guy when his friend arrived at the guesthouse with a gun in his hand. Apparently the guesthouse owner found this quite comical and asked how much he had paid for the gun but found it all pretty strange when the Englishman said “Paid? Nothing”.

At this point the story gets a bit hazy. But obviously someone – eventually called the police and the two English were arrested, prompting them to give their raft – and the remaining paddle – to two Americans who also wanted to go down the river. As it turned out this was quite fortunate since their raft had been build with green bamboo and rapidly took water so that a few hours later the Americans had to be saved from their sinking raft by a passing ship.

The English were brought to the next biggest village where the police tried to make sense of everything. That they didn’t speak English didn’t really help, but with the help of a Lao-English dictionary the English managed to explain what was happened. Apparently the policemen found this all just hilarious and eventually send the two guys on their way – keeping the gun. So it did end well. Still, I would recommend against stealing peoples guns…