A tribal family in the poverty-stricken Indian state of Orissa has sold two of its children to a newspaper reporter so they wouldn't die from hunger.
Mr Anand Das, from the Hindustan Times, bought a four-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister for the equivalent of £16 sterling and 15kg of rice.
He had been visiting a tribal area to report on the rising number of starvation deaths.
Orissa has been hit by floods and droughts.
Mr Das reports in the paper that an uncle of the two orphans, Paree and Jemati, said: "We are unable to feed these two children as we do not have enough food for ourselves and our own children."
He says he was urged to take both children because villagers said one would die without the other's company. He is now looking after them at his home in Raipur.
"The womenfolk started crying, begging me to feed the child (Paree) well and to come again to take the other child. They said when you return, bring 15 kilos of rice for the family," Mr Das said in a first person account of the incident.
"The villagers set 1,500 rupees (£21) as Jemati's price. I bargained once again, saying that Jemati wasn't a boy. They sold me the child for 500 rupees (£7)."