My e-Learning Design Challenge to You

This is a sad, but real story reported in respectable Chinese newspapers, cited by Yahoo here and here. This is a story which we can ponder for a while and think about what that would mean to us.

Let convert this into a design exercise.

First a brief outline of the story itself.

A 21 year old young Vietnam man was glad that he would be jailed for 21 months in Hong Kong after entering Hong Kong illegally and found carrying two bullets and a long knife.

Why was he glad?

To understand, here are some facts:

Illegal entry into Hong Kong: mandatory 15 months jail

Carrying weapon (2 bullets and a knife): mandatory 6 months jail

Prisoners, working in jail, have a wage of HKD100 per week, accommodation and food supplied by the employer (the prison)

Cost of illegal entry into Hong Kong, fees to "Snake head": 3 Million Vietnamese dollars, about HK$1485 (two bullets and a knife were supplied as part of the deal)

For good behaviour in jail, the actual jail term is 14 months
Net HK$(5600-1485) - over HK$4000 (US$500+)

If caught after entering Hong Kong, the payout was shown above

If not caught, during the stay in Hong Kong, work as a labourer (wages unknown, but should be better than the wage in jail)

Now, reverse role play this, i.e. create a scenario which will lead the player rationally want to get caught by illegally entering Hong Kong with 2 bullets and a knife and feeling happy.