Court staff in Shenyang of Liaoning Province were put in an embarrassing situation recently while having to arrest a 77-year-old man for an unpaid debt of 160,000 yuan (US$19,728) to an old woman.

Under the law, he should have been detained for 15 days for the default. But law-enforcement officers found that he was in no state to serve the detention and had to release him

The court has now frozen his pension account and is forcing him to pay back the debt every month until his death.