Rewards In A Rural Society

Let's say you're at the post office, or grocery store, or wherever and you happen to notice a wanted poster offering a reward for an individual. You happen to recognize the individual as one of your neighbors, fellow Crossfit gym cultist, or just someone you see walking their dog every day. Being the good citizen that you are you inform the police and they arrest the wanted individual. What would you expect the reward to be?

Most people in Western society would probably say money, a new car, or season tickets to your favorite sports team. A few of you may want a life time supply of Twinkies but if you're turning people in for Twinkies you've got other issues.

But what about people in Afghanistan? What sort of reward should be offered to those people willing to turn in their neighbor/villager/own tribal member?

After 12 or so years of this war apparently we up here at IJC believe it's money.

We up here at IJC are a bunch of idiots.

That rural villager living in some valley doesn't want money. Give him $10,000 for pointing out the location of a wanted individual and you just painted a giant bulls-eye on the guy. What is he going to do with $10,000 (or the Afghan equivalent) anyway? A better reward would be livestock. Give an informer 20 sheep, goats, or whatever the hell he wants and he's a lot better off. The sudden appearance of a bunch of goats is also easier to explain than 10 grand.

"Hey Abdul, where'd you get all that American money from?"

"Uh...my cousin sent it to me?"

"Yeah right." *shoots Abdul*

Better situation...

"Hey Abdul, where'd you get all those goats?"

"Uh...my cousin got them for me as dowry/loan payment/opium harvest."

"That makes complete sense and I totally believe you." *does not shoot Abdul*

The problem is that being a giant bureaucracy, IJC can't handle anything like switching around reward systems. If we're offering $10,000 then by golly we're going to give $10,000. Nevermind the fact that giving away large amounts of cash like that doesn't usually make sense.

I hope the lower echelons have more common sense than we do up here above reality.