A 16-year-old man from southwest China’s Sichuan Province has been handed over to prosecutors in Dubai after smuggling himself into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in hope of becoming rich by begging in the financial hub of the Middle East.

The young man surnamed Xu was caught by local police at the Dubai International Airport after flying nine hours and 30 minutes in the cargo compartment of an Emirates A380 airliner from Shanghai, the Chengdu Economic Daily (CED) reported Tuesday.

Xu jumped over fences and sneaked into the airliner’s cargo compartment late May 25 before it took off on 12:05 a.m. on May 26 in Shanghai, according to the airline’s China office.

Local lawyers and an interpreter by the name of Mian Jinlong said Xu could be deported back to China and may be blacklisted from entering Dubai in the future, CED reported.

According to Mian, Xu said he decided to go to Dubai because he learned that the annual income of beggars in Dubai could be up to tens of thousands dollars. Xu also admitted his knowledge of the illegality of smuggling oneself, but he heard prisoners were well-treated behind bars.

It is the first case to see self-smuggling committed by someone of such young age to Dubai, Mian noted.

Posts claiming that beggars in Dubai could earn 9,000 dirham ($2,450) every day went viral online recently and many netizens joked that they would quit their jobs and beg in Dubai.

“I hope that Chinese citizens will not follow such rumors … The UAE has strict laws banning begging, violators of which will be punished in accordance with the law,” Ma Xuliang, consul general at the Consulate-General of China in Dubai, told CED.