This is crazy！
www.theguardian.com/[...]

Remember some airlines had to write special notices in Chinese that the forks and knives for lunch, could not be taken away as souvenirs. What is a surprise is that they actually do have toilet paper is one public toilet, can anyone think of any public toilet over there where they provide toilet paper? The answer is no, not even at airport. Many people still take a piece of newspaper with them - rather than buying paper - just to save the money. Using a piece of newspaper can probably save up to 50 Yuan a year - nevermind the itching. So just imagine if theres a paper roll somewhere, thats free paper.

So it sure is interesting to see how the bicycles (mentioned in another thread) will work out.

As a sidetopic here, its quite funny now when Europe is full of Chinese how little the Europeans understand Chinese people. Most seem to think that they work earnestly, pay taxes honestly, behave meticulously according to law, sit home and play bamboo flute next to a Great Wall picture, and eat fried pork in bamboo shoots and soy sauce. How funny. (...and how lucky some are, now when intelligence is focused 99% on terrorism, and Russia).

Cost of stolen toilet paper?

Versus cost of face scanning equipment/auto bog paper equipment?

Explains why the vast majority of Chinese public toilets don't have paper...

@Peter99 Spot on! If they can't steal it, they'll copy it. I expect something like this in Venezuela given that there are shortages of toilet paper over there.

often when i use a public bog in china, i dont have the luxury of 3 seconds to get my face scanned. cries of incoming, make a hole, fire in the hole, boom.

Ha.Ha.

Results of the "ME FIRST" society.

@ liumingke: I agree, face scanning to prevent theft of toilet paper, crazy. And such a control-freakish tendency is indeed ominous, as well as ridiculous. I suggest the bog-roll-provision people learn to roll with it once in awhile, rather than to try to pin everybody down like bugs. If they are going to be obsessed by this kind of real serious first-degree thievery, what else are they likely to get obsessed by?
Given this kind of opportunity for convenience, I'd much rather just go on carrying my own toilet paper around and wait for the state to get real.

@ Liuming

Copy culture is past. Considering these days you can press the zero button on a keyboard, after number one, and make a number one to a ten, why not do that and buy ten rolls instead.

it sounds like a tech solution, looking for a problem.