浙江嵊州叫停撿菸蒂換紙巾活動

The authorities in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, were encouraging people to collect discarded cigarettes from the streets and hand them in, the Sohu news website reports.

據搜狐新聞網報道，浙江省嵊州市政府鼓勵人們收集街道上丟棄的香菸，交給政府。

For every 50 that were collected, the city was offering a pack of tissues in return.

每收集50個菸蒂，政府就給兌換一包紙巾。

But the apparently meagre reward had people turning out in droves.

這看似小小的獎勵卻引得人們蜂擁而至。

The sanitation task force was soon flooded with cigarette butts, receiving almost five million of them in three weeks, and costing them 100,000 packets of tissues.

該市環衛處很快就堆滿了菸蒂，這裏在3周內收到了近500萬個菸蒂，兌換出10萬包紙巾。

One elderly woman turned up with more than 9,000 butts, Sohu says.

搜狐稱，有位老婦人送來9000多個菸蒂。

People were counting out their used cigarettes in little piles outside the office, the Zhejiang Radio and TV Group reports.

據浙江廣播電視集團報道，人們在辦公室外一小堆一小堆的數着菸蒂。

Officials soon felt that something was amiss, suspecting that those taking part had either been sent cigarettes by people beyond Shengzhou, or had travelled in from elsewhere.

當地官員很快就發現事情不太對勁，他們懷疑要麼有外地人給參與活動的人送來菸蒂，要麼就是外地人來參與兌換。

That prompted them to cancel the campaign.

活動因此被取消了。

"Many of the cigarette butts we received were fairly clean - they were not soiled or soaked in any way, and they didn't look like they were picked up from the ground," an unnamed official tells The Paper.

一位不具名的官員告訴澎湃新聞，我們收到許多相當乾淨的菸蒂——上面完全沒有沾染泥土、水漬，看起來不像是從地面上撿的。

"We couldn't be sure where the butts were collected, so we had no choice but to accept them all."

我們不能確定這些菸蒂是從哪裏收集來的，所以不得不全部收下。

Many social media users feel the government can only blame itself for how things turned out.

許多社交媒體用戶認爲，事情演變成這樣政府只能怪自己。

"It is just that the authorities haven't prepared it well enough," one says on the Sina Weibo microblogging site.

一位新浪微博網友表示,這隻能說明政府沒有做好充分的準備。

While some are unimpressed that people tried to cheat the system, others point out a potentially unintended consequence: the scheme could simply encourage smokers to light up more often.

雖然一些人對於人們試圖欺詐的行爲不以爲然，但也有人指出政府此舉可能帶來意想不到的後果：這一方案可能只會鼓勵吸菸者吸更多煙。

"It's no different from welfare for smokers," one person writes.

有網友寫道，這和給吸菸者發福利沒什麼區別，

"Save your cigarette butts, we'll give you tissues in exchange."

留下菸蒂，我們就給你兌換紙巾。