In 2002 British officials trying to reduce opium production in Afghanistan offered farmers 700 dollars an acre to destroy their poppy crop. The scheme created an incentive to grow poppies in order to collect the payout. Farmers planted as many as they could, and some harvested and sold the sap before destroying the plants, earning more than the payment alone. The result was a frenzy of poppy planting rather than a reduction. The case is a textbook example of a perverse incentive, where a rule produces the opposite of its intent.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.