How to Escape from Giving Bribe in Government Offices?

This incident happened a few days ago when I wanted to get some work done in one of the government offices. I ended up getting the document without paying a single paisa. 

Disclaimer: This particular method may not work all the time. It worked well for me. You can call it my luck or anything. But sharing it for your information. 

Mistakes: When you go to govt. offices they will find 100 mistakes in your document. 

                    Be patient. Correct them and again go back to them. 

                    Again they will point out a few mistakes. 

                    Be patient. Correct them and again go back to them. 

Background: They point out your mistakes just to make you realise that you're not sufficiently equipped to get what you want from them. Understand this first. 

Lesson: When such things happen with you, there is a natural human tendency to get impatient or angry over them. Which would result in either paying an extra bribe or not getting whatever is needed?

If you don't want to bribe them at all then what to do? 

Before you decide or try what I am going to suggest here. You need to understand one life hack. 

"Higher officer would never ask you for a bribe directly. It's the person who's working under them who asks for that." If higher officer himself asks then don't read further. 

Being revolutionary, 

Getting angry over them,

Filing a complaint against them wouldn't help all the time. Those people know how to handle such situations very well. It's a street play for them. Just like a day to day activity. You're just another fool. You need to be in a much more powerful position and should have sufficient time to handle such things.

"Philosophy doesn't always help but psychology does."

Being a nice man, I went with an application. As expected he pointed out some mistakes. I got corrected them. Again he pointed out some and made me wait. I, a PhD student waited for more than 3-4 hours easily. Initial 1.5 hours, I really got pissed off and became revolutionary for some time. Meanwhile, I also realised that this wouldn't work here. Remember! your anger is the easiest thing to handle for an opponent. So I became ready to pay a bribe of INR 50-100. 

But, for my luck, he started demanding INR 200 - almost double of what I was ready for. 

Now, the actual fun began. I started bargaining with him for 100 because as a PhD student I don't earn a penny now. I am also one of the poor PhD students as others. 10-15 minutes bargaining. Didn't work on either side. The document was ready. 100 was ready from my side. He was ready for 200. After listening to my soft voice for 20 minutes he whispered in my ears "Madam bahut strict he manegi nahi - (Madam is very strict, she won't agree for less". 

Then, I mistakenly took the stupidest step just to save 100. I told him "I will go and speak to her" and he agreed and sent me to her. 

I stood in front of her and said he sent me to you for the etc reason. And in a soft voice, I put that bargaining price in front of her - when there were a few other colleagues and people with her. 

She literally got angry "not over me" but "over that person" who sent me to her. She started shouting on him, signed the document and handed it over to me for FREE. 

People who're at higher positions than you shouldn't take money from you directly - It's kind of an insult. This lesson was taught to Amol Palekar by Ashok Kumar in CHOTI SI BAAT movie. Thanks to JNW Singh (Ashok Kumar) for such lessons. 

Hope this trick helps you to save 100 - 200. 

-SB