Children in Bulgaria found a way to earn extra pocket money from head lice by selling them. The lice-trading ring was found after medical staff were gobsmacked to see lice returning to the heads of children despite having been eradicated the day before. In fact that lice epidemic at the village of Ravnets caused medical staff to think that they were dealing with super lice.

The truth is that the children sold lice to each other as a way of getting three days off school. The trend became so popular that the price went up. Health care services in eastern Bulgaria soon felt the strain, unable to coap with the number of children that inundated their clinics.