The funny news (five years ago), original by Metro’s Basit Mahmood:
Chinese businessman Tan Youhui was looking for a hitman to take out a competitor, Wei Mou, and was willing to pay 2 million yuan (£218,000) to get the job done.
The hitman that Mr Youhui hired decided to offer the job to another hitman for half the original price.
The second hitman then subcontracted to another hitman, who then subcontracted to a fourth, who gave the job to a fifth.
The last hitman got so little money that he doesn’t want to kill the guy at all—instead he contacted the target directly and offered to be like “hey, someone hired me to kill you. It would be nice if you help me out by go into hiding for awhile so i can keep my money”—the target then called the police.
They were of course sentenced to jail. But also this won a Nobel Prize (no, the other one)
[2019] A special Ig Nobel in Management went to a group of “reluctant hitmen” in China… source
reference
Hitman hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who tells police Basit Mahmood. Metro. 2019