Bribe-accepting officials don't tell you that you must pay them cash in an envelope. That's carelessly brazen. Or, if they do, it's only after extra weeks of nu

Bribe-accepting officials don't tell you that you must pay them cash in an envelope. That's carelessly brazen. Or, if they do, it's only after extra weeks of nudging. They might take pity on someone completely naive... there's no need to be cruel to those who don't know the rules of the game. So after a month or two of being shut down, and the dumbass not taking hints, maybe they whisper something when there are no witnesses. Maybe after poking around and making sure that they're not some undercover cop or fed. But after years of this, systems develop organically to minimize the need. Others who aren't inspectors (a savvy real estate agent) but do know the rules step in. They let the rubes know what's up. And if someone accuses them, they've committed no bribes, they're just pointing out the existence of the bribery and providing free advice on how to navigate it (it's fair to assume some get kickbacks, but good luck figuring out those details). They ran into one of those guys early. They didn't set out to hire anyone to do it. He offered for free.