Agence France-Presse

HARARE - A Zimbabwean man has been jailed for two years after he sold urine to residents in a mining town claiming it was cooking oil, a state daily reported Thursday.

The Herald newspaper said Piccard Mudzingwa, 28, approached one of the victims at a bus terminus in the southern mining town of Zvishavane selling bottles containing a liquid he said was cooking oil.

The victim discovered she had been duped when she was preparing supper the following day and reported Mudzingwa to the police.

He was arrested when he attempted to repeat the trick on another woman.

Cooking oil is among commodities that are in short supply in Zimbabwe as the country battles an economic crisis with 165,000 percent inflation and 80 percent unemployment.