Xu Ting and the era of judicial discretion

Xu Ting, a migrant worker, will undoubtedly go down in this country's contemporary history as a marker of multiple meanings in the path to the rule of law.

The 24-year-old had never expected that an ATM would have allowed him to withdraw 1,000 yuan ($144) even though his account balance said only 1 yuan had been taken out. Apparently, something had gone wrong with the ATM.

No one knows what the young man, who was working as a security guard at Guangdong Supreme People's Court at the time, was thinking the moment he discovered that the ATM slot turned out to be a source of easy money.