There goes the neighbour's house
There's a few written and unwritten rules about neighbourly conduct - you know yourself: don't covet your neighbour's wife, try not to shit on their doorstep, keep the music down after midnight and ... um... never try to demolish his house when he's at work.

This last one happened at the end of last year in Hanoi after a row over land between two neighbours. One was so pissed off he paid a gang to come round with pickaxes and hammers and start smashing up the neighbour's gaff.

The case has just been in the courts with the naughty neighbour, a female copper and a bunch of ne'er do wells all going down for playing a part in huffing-and-puffing and blowing the poor fella's house down. Well half of it.

The ex-copper got 15 months. She got paid off by the neighbour to turn a blind eye, then paid off by the gang's leader to turn the other blind eye, then by the neighbour's brother to try and get his brother cleared.

She then paid a guy to PRETEND he was the guilty party (sounds like pretty daft career move by the faking-scapegoat) to get the neighbour off the hook but he obviously didn't perform so well as the investigating cops smelled a rat (spotted the said copper's new Honda@ in the parking lot per chance?) and it all came out in the wash.

Property disputes here can kick off over a matter of inches, someone builds an annex that encroaches on the neighbour's house or even someone leaves a motorbike in front of their neighbour's house and suddenly there's a dogfight. Obviously reacting by trying to knock someone's house down is a tad extreme.

Makes coveting the neighbour's wife/ husband a petty misdemeanour in comparison.

So don't feel so bad about it, alright?