A local court in a small village in India has banned all forms of gambling after a local man bet – and lost – his three-year-old son to another gambler.

Last week, media in the Indian state of Bihar reported that a man named Santosh Kumar from a small village in the Muzaffarpur district had gone on a lengthy losing streak in an unspecified form of gambling with another villager. Having lost all his other possessions, Kumar decided to use his three-year-old son as collateral in a wagering Hail Mary.

But Kumar lost that gamble, and his rival Ram Bhajan Sah duly took his new adopted toddler by the hand and began to lead him away. At this point, the world’s worst father had a sudden attack of scruples, presumably due to his fears of how he’d explain Junior’s absence to his wife that night over dinner.

Tempers quickly flew as the rest of the village began squaring up on either side of this debate. The village sarpanch, who serves as a liaison between government and local residents, promptly convened an emergency session of the village court, and after hearing both sides, the kid was returned to his father’s custody.