Jailed and Beaten for Stealing Lunch

(Sana'a, Yemen) After eating lunch in a Cairo restaurant, a Yemeni student, Tariq al-Ja'adi, was arrested by Egyptian security officers and jailed for more than 20 days. Tariq's friends went to the Yemeni Consulate, claiming that the Egyptians were treating him inhumanely and beating him daily.

The consulate officials said that Tariq deserved to be locked up because he didn't pay his lunch bill and encouraged the friends to take up a collection to pay for a lawyer to get him released.

It's not clear whether this case is an isolated instance or if the Muslims consider that not paying for lunch is a major crime. Either way, it appears that honor killings may be treated less harshly than skipping out on a lunch bill.