27. History’s Most Extreme Consumer Protection Practices?
The Mad Caliph Al Hakim’s weirdness went beyond religious persecutions. It included what must be one of history’s most bizarre consumer protection practices, ever. He reportedly used to walk through the markets of Cairo, looking for deceptive merchants, while accompanied by a giant African slave named Masoud.
Whenever he came across a merchant cheating his customers, the Mad Caliph would order Masoud to publicly sodomize the crook, right then and there. To this day, when people in Cairo encounter a merchant whom they suspect is trying to cheat them, they threaten to “bring Masoud”.