Thieves pilloried in the Middle Ages of Kabul

KABUL – From the deep Middle Ages from which they seem to have re-emerged, the Taliban have dusted off an ancient and obsolete recipe against petty crime: the pillory. They expose the petty thieves caught with their hands in the sack to the crowd. After handcuffing them behind their back, they cut a few strands of hair, paint their face black with shoe polish or tar, then hang around their neck an example of what they tried in vain to grab: a shoe, a tin of oil, a knife.