According to Osho, people began to honor poverty when a long collusion between priests and politicians took hold: their power depends on ongoing sin, fear, and guilt. Prosperity would dissolve sin—and with it the priest’s trade and the politician’s control—so they sanctified destitution. By romanticizing poverty, they ensured dependence, crime, and obedience, as Lao Tzu’s parable exposes systemic roots.
They praised being poor so people stayed needy, sinned from lack, felt guilty, and kept obeying priests and politicians.