Monk’s DIY eyebrows to unlock welfare card payment go viral

A Facebook post showing a Buddhist monk sticking fake eyebrows on his face so he could use his state welfare card went viral on Monday.

Three photographs of the unnamed monk were posted on the CNew Viewer 4K page at around 11.17am, and within a couple of hours, the post drew nearly 8,000 reactions, including laughing emojis, more than 370 comments and over 1,500 shares.

The post said that the monk faced difficulties using his welfare rights as the store’s payment app failed to recognise him as the same person pictured in the welfare card.

Welfare cardholders must present their ID cards at authorised stores, where a state payment app scans their faces for verification.

However, the monk’s lack of eyebrows – a requirement for Buddhist monks – hindered the system from verifying his identity. To solve the issue, the store’s staff used black adhesive tape to fashion makeshift eyebrows. This fix succeeded, and the app finally authorised the payment.

The photos included one of a male staff member applying the adhesive tape eyebrows, another of a woman scanning the monk’s face and a third showing the woman covering her face as she bursts into laughter over the improvised solution.

While many commenters admitted it would be a sin to laugh at a monk, they found the situation irresistibly funny. One comment highlighted the challenges faced by “blue-flag” grocery stores authorised to accept welfare cards. For instance, it said, for customers who undergo drastic physical changes such as weight loss due to cancer, shops had to come up with creative solutions, like getting them to puff out their cheeks to pass the face-scanning process.