An oldie but a goodie none the less.U.S. officials couldn't believe their luck last week when a suspected Taliban commander who heard there was a $100 reward for his whereabouts turned himself in to authorities.
Perhaps misunderstanding the meaning of 'wanted', Mohammad Ashan sauntered up to police in Sar Howza, Paktika province, with a poster bearing his own face - and demanded the finder's fee.
Sometimes it pays to learn how to read.
Officers arrested Ashan on the spot, the Washington Post reported. Nevertheless, when U.S. forces went to confirm Ashan had come forward they were understandably incredulous.
'We asked him, "Is this you?"' SPC Matthew Baker told the Post. 'Mohammad Ashan answered with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, "Yes, yes, that's me! Can I get my award now?"'
Biometric checks confirmed that the man Afghan police were holding was the alleged insurgent U.S. troops had been looking for.
He is suspected of plotting at least two attacks on Afghan security forces and his face was on hundreds of posters plastered all over the district.
Nato forces often distribute wanted posters, but they are rarely so effective.
Civilians are usually afraid to pass on information for fear of reprisals, and Taliban fighters themselves usually avoid urban areas when they are being hunted.
But not it seems, Ashan. 'Clearly,' one U.S. official told the Post, 'the man is an imbecile.'
And therefore probably qualified to run the Republican party.
Ashan's effort to claim the reward money on his head may have been a misguided attempt to replicate the recent taunts of the White House made by Pakistani militant Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
The 61-year-old founder of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba mocked U.S. officials who put a ÂŁ10million bounty on his head, saying they should give the reward money to him, as he had made no secret of his whereabouts.
Personally, I think these enormous rewards just scare off anyone who would rat him out. What would they do with such a huge sum of money? You can't even stay in the country after that! On the other hand, $10,000 would be something they could hide relatively easily or put it in their local bank and not raise such a fuss.
Speaking to a news conference near to Pakistan's military headquarters earlier this month, he boasted: 'I am here, I am visible. America should give that reward money to me.
'I will be in Lahore tomorrow. America can contact me whenever it wants to.'
Well, we can't exactly get hold of you whenever we want, but on occasion we will kill you.
Saeed has been accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people, including six American citizens.
But he operates openly in Pakistan, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows.
And the Paki government probably has no idea you're there, either.