Dr Thim’s dream ends with sting in tail

RANONG: Noodle vendor Sajee “Thim” Klong-nguern, 31, had been suffering unusual aches and pains. That was until, one night, she says, an angel came to her in a dream. The angel told her that if she ate a pig’s tail that had been boiled in palm sugar for 15 minutes, all her aches and pains would vanish. The next day, she tested her vision’s advice and to her amazement, it worked. With her newfound remedy in mind, Thim closed her noodle shop and started helping people by curing their illnesses. Word soon spread and people started arriving at Thim’s home in Kra Buri so they could try the panacea for themselves. The crowds grew, as did her reputation, and soon Thim had about 1,000 visitors a day. Over the next five months, Thim’s practice developed. Patients started calling her “Dr” Thim, and she started telling them to light a joss stick and pray before eating the pig’s tail. Frugal patients brought a pig’s tail from home, while others bought one for 30 baht from one of the stalls set up nearby. The local pig-tails business boomed, with vendors selling 500-600 tails a day. Although the angel had forbidden Thim to charge people money for the medicine, it was fine, she felt, if she accepted donations. And this she did, with people donating tens of thousands of baht each day. Sadly, it seems, not everyone appreciated Thim’s philanthropy. Police arrested her on December 12 and charged her with fraud.