I don't know where to begin on how strange this sounds, especially from a western mindset.  It turns out that in Southern China exist gangs that specialize in kidnapping elderly people to be sold for cremation.  Yeah ... that means that there is a market for this ... people actually buy dead old people, then cremate them.  Prices run up to $1500 per body ... Wow!

Well, when you look into it a bit more, it turns out that cremation is standard practice in China.  In order to save time, effort and real estate, the government sponsors the cremation of the dead.  A western mindset may find this blasphemous, feeling that the body needs to be buried and not burned.  It turns out, many Chinese feel the same way.  So, what do they do?  They buy a body double, cremate the double for the officials, then bury the body quietly somewhere to please their 'God'.  Yep, you guessed it, Religion Strikes Back!

As you can imagine, there are numerous social consequences to this.  For one, you may come home one day to find grandpa missing.  In such a case, you aren't likely to see grandpa again and all you can assume is that one of your neighbor's relatives has passed.  Since the purchaser has no idea who the body is, it is difficult to blame them directly.  However, that doesn't stop the Chinese officials.  From a legal perspective, demand creates supply, and so those doing the purchasing are just as guilty as those committing the act.

Police stopped a hearse near Puning last August three days after a 57-year-old man was reported missing by his family – the seventh disappearance in the town in less than a year.  It contained two corpses – one of them showing signs of strangulation. Alleged gang members were tried but the outcome was never made public. [Sunday Express]

Most strange and unusual things have a history that, once told, paints the situation in a not-so-strange light.  While this is a disgusting practice, pleasing your 'God' often is.  This is just one of those situations where society doesn't conform with religion, and so it is better to kill innocent people so that your God is happy, rather than conform to societal norms.  Hmmm ... where have I heard that before?