Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This viral video seen nearly two million times shows a woman floating inside a wooden tub in a park pond to steal edible seeds growing in the water.

The bizarre scenes were filmed by visitors at Guilin Park in Shanghai, in East China, on 16th October.

In the footage, the middle-aged woman can be seen floating casually in the middle of the pond while gathering a large bin bag full of water caltrop seeds.

The moustache-shaped seeds grow annually under the water’s surface to form the aquatic water caltrop plant, and they are harvested and eaten for their starchy interiors.

But while most tend to reach for them from the pond’s edge, the woman in question decided to outsmart the competition by floating into the centre of the water in the wooden tub, which she apparently brought herself for that exact purpose.

In the video, other women can be seen standing by the edge of the pond while collecting the seeds known in Mandarin as ‘lingjiao’, from which its alternative English name ‘ling nut’ derives.

While the woman’s actions were not strictly unlawful, staff at the park asked the woman to leave the pond for her own safety.

She is not thought to have been punished for the brazen stunt.

Park security spokesman Mr Mao said: “After we were told what was happening, our security guards asked them to stop and told the woman to leave the pond.

“A few tourists were watching from the side. They probably thought it was fun.

“We’ve held an emergency meeting about it and have come up with some extra safety measures, such as more frequent patrols.”

The water caltrop has been cultivated in China and the Indian subcontinent for its seeds for three millennia.

Due to the ornamental shape of its seeds, they are also known as bat nuts, devil pods or mustache nuts.

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