Kind Teens Try to Help Fallen Elderly Woman, Almost Get Extorted For $15,000

Kindness to total strangers is an admirable virtue to have, but sometimes the risk of being taken advantage of would make one think twice before extending a helping hand.

Consider the case of three Chinese teenagers who thought they were helping a poor elderly woman, but almost ended up as victims of an extortion scam.

The three high school students were reportedly walking down a street in Jiangxi, China when they encountered an old lady with a cane in her hand, according to Sina (via World Of Buzz).

The woman suddenly fell to the ground, appearing helpless right in front of the boys. In an attempt to be helpful, the kind teens rushed to the aid of the fallen elderly woman and carefully got her back up on her feet.

However, she suddenly accused them of causing her to trip and fall, and demanded that they buy her some medicine. When the boys obliged, she reportedly got more emboldened to ask for money, initially asking for 50 yuan ($8) from the boys as compensation.

Soon enough, the woman was already asking 100,000 yuan (about $15,000), claiming she had to get treatment from a hospital. The frightened boys were fortunately saved from the apparent extortion scam when two college students passed by and noticed the commotion.

Concerned to get to the bottom of the incident, the older students went to investigate and found that there was a security camera nearby which recorded what actually happened.

While the high school boys were cleared of any wrongdoing, the woman was still adamant that she deserved compensation for her alleged injury. The boys instead sought the help of authorities and ended up filing a police report about the incident.