A friend at work told me this story from his native India.
A man's in-laws come over to visit and the father accidentally hits the man's donkey with his car. Rather than accept payment -- and to demonstrate his business acumen -- the man decides to make some money by raffling off the dead donkey.
So he sets up a booth and starts selling raffle tickets for a chance to "win a donkey". He sells lots of tickets and makes far more money than the donkey was worth, even when alive. It finally comes time to draw the winning ticket, but after he does so the winner is upset that donkey is dead. The man apologizes and refunds the winner's money, keeping the rest for himself.
Lottery: a tax on people who don't know math.