Monk cheats mother from previous life

A monk has been accused of swindling at least 20 million baht from an elderly gem trader he convinced was his mother in a former life.

Pongsri Wattanasathit, 89, filed a complaint with police yesterday claiming Phra Pakorn Vorapati falsified documents that he used to sell two of her land plots.

Ms Pongsri also accused the 59-year-old monk of persuading her to buy a six-wheeled truck valued at 1 million baht, along with at least two other vehicles. One car was allegedly registered in the name of a police officer, who was a close aide to the monk.

Ms Pongsri said she met Phra Pakorn three years ago, during a visit to a temple in Chanthaburi. He told her he lived at Wat Thamprakaipet in Chaiyaphum province.

After claiming he was her son in a previous life, and constantly referring to her as ``mother'', Ms Pongsri agreed to register Phra Pakorn as her adopted son.

The monk then allegedly convinced Ms Pongsri to sign seven pieces of blank paper.

She later discovered the monk had used the documents to sell the land plots, worth a total of 20 million baht.

--The Post 2004-01-30

The Venerable lad was up kinda early wasn't he ?

How can someone so gullible amass 20m Baht.....

Maybe she inherited it ?