#171 Planet Money: How An Indian Entrepreneur Learned To Love Paying Bribes

Gagan Singh was 22 years old when he started a small business in Delhi, India, delivering telephone and Internet service. To get the business going, he needed to string up some wires and get licenses from the government. To make that happen, he had to start bribing people.

Singh had to bribe, basically, everybody: the lineman, the junior engineer, the senior engineer, their bosses. He hated it it. He didn't even want to be a businessman; he wanted to be an artist.