Making paying a bribe illegal changes the equilibrium. If soliciting a bribe as a government official has the same penalty for paying it, there’s incentives to

Making paying a bribe illegal changes the equilibrium. If soliciting a bribe as a government official has the same penalty for paying it, there’s incentives to do it and hide it. However, if soliciting is illegal but paying is not, then it’s more likely that they receiver will get dinged. The other side of this is offering a bribe to an honest government official: Let them take it (and turn it over to law enforcement) and then turn in the payer. In both those cases, it’s now riskier to solicit/offer bribes.