Easy money

Wang Shengli, 34, a farmer from Zhumadian, Henan Province, led a gang of thieves in plundering millions of yuan in cash and other goods from the properties of at least 50 officials in Anhui, Henan and Shanxi provinces since September 2011.

The six-member group reportedly broke into home of Zhao Xing-hua, former Party chief of Zhengyang county, Henan Province in 2011 and made off with more than 1 million yuan and two bottles of Moutai, a high-end baijiu.

Wang decided to specifically target the homes and offices of government officials under the assumption those suspected of corruption would be unwilling to file police reports and draw unwanted attention to their finances.

His hunch proved right - very few police reports were ever filed by those officials, The Beijing News reported.

The gang was finally apprehended in December 2012 after a victim, a Party chief of a bank in Zhengyang, reported the break-in of his home to police.

In an attempt to cover his tracks, Zhao ordered local police to fabricate a report saying that the gang stole only 6,040 yuan, medial reported.

However, Wang later told anti-graft investigators the gang had confessed to police they had stolen much more. He also claimed that local police divvied up the confiscated cash and goods among themselves.

When Zhao was probed for suspicion of corruption in August 2013, he confirmed Wang's claim to disciplinary investigators that 1 million yuan was stolen from his home.

Despite this information, Wang and his accomplices were charged in March 2014 for the theft of 6,040 yuan.

During his hearing, Wang told the court how police had altered his confession - information that triggered an official investigation into Wang's case in April.

Two police officers were found to have colluded with Zhao to persuade the thieves to accept the fixed testimony in exchange for a more lenient sentence.

The city's disciplinary watchdog later uncovered evidence that police officers had altered other details of Wang's confession so as not to implicate other officials.

Earlier this year, the arrest of two thieves captured the public imagination after they provided detailed information about officials whose homes they had burglarized.

Fang Yunyun, 20, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2014 but is serving out her sentence under house arrest due to her pregnancy. Tang Shuiyan, 30, is still awaiting trial.

While out on bail, Tang provided information regarding two corrupt officials from Hunan Province on the country's top disciplinary watchdog's website in August.

Fang also confessed in July to stealing more than 600 pre-paid shopping cards worth 1.5 million yuan from a banking regulation official in Anhui, the Shanghai-based news portal The Paper reported.

Their crimes was so lucrative that the pair sometimes bought airline tickets to travel to their next hit, Tang said.

Tang claimed that she only targeted corrupt officials and never picked the pockets of the general public. "They [officials] were also thieves, because they stole money just as I did," the Nanfang Weekly quoted Tang as saying.

The Beijing News found that 11 of 12 cases involving burglarized officials over the past decade were later investigated by top anti-graft teams.

Although some Internet users have characterized the thieves as modern day Robin Hoods, many debated whether the thieves deserved reduced sentences for their tip-offs or if they are providing an effective way to fight corruption.