A man who allegedly imitated a Buddhist monk in order to raise money to buy beer was arrested by military police on Sunday in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district.

Yean Thun, a 30-year-old former construction worker from Prey Veng province, was arrested in the capital’s Thmey commune wearing a saffron robe while toting an alms bowl and an umbrella, Sen Sok district police chief Yean Thun said yesterday.

“He was jobless so he would dress in Buddhist monk clothes and pretend that he was a monk,” the police chief said.

Villagers had complained that the man had been using the money  he received to buy beer, which he drank in a rented room, Yean Thun added.

“He was arrested because he did things that seriously damaged the reputation of Buddhist monks and Buddhism in Cambodia,” the police chief said.

However, Cheng Thirak, a personal assistant to the patriarch of Cambodian monks Samdech Preah Sankareach Noun Ngeth, said that according to Buddhist law there was no punishment for those who imitate monks.