There’s been quite a scandal at the Royal Temple in Ayutthaya. The 66-year-old abbot, Wachirayan, was arrested during a police raid. They caught him having dinner with a 47-year-old woman, and to top it off, they found some flashy gold-plated utensils at the scene—definitely a shocking sight.
Reports say that over the past two years, the abbot issued more than 20 donation receipts improperly, funneling a whopping 92 million baht (around 2.6 million USD) donated by followers into his accomplice's personal account instead of the temple’s funds. Even more outrageous, surveillance footage showed them being inappropriately close in the monk's quarters, which stirred up quite a controversy.
When police searched their residence, they uncovered a stash of cash, gold bars, luxury watches, and several land deeds. It turns out Wachirayan had 290 million baht in assets, with 138 million baht in cash and 15.2 kilograms of gold. His accomplice's property was valued at 215 million baht. Altogether, their total assets reached an astonishing 723 million baht (about 20.4 million USD). It seems this temple was more like a treasure vault!
