A Chinese man became so obsessed with tomb-robbing fiction that he carried out a real-life heist, breaking into an ancient burial site and stealing 20 cultural relics dating back to 771 BC.

The mastermind, surnamed Yu from Hubei province in central China, read tomb-robbing novels every day.

When reading fiction no longer satisfied him, he began meticulously verifying details described in the stories, often cross-checking them with local county records when he came across questionable or vague claims.

“I just kept reading, and the more I read, the more obsessed I became. I started digging deeper: what dynasty? which important figure? how were the tombs built? Some of them really did exist,” Yu said.

His biggest fascination was the so-called mystical techniques described in the novels.

As his obsession grew, he eventually decided to put these fictional methods into practice.

His foray into real-life tomb raiding began when a pop-up notification appeared on his phone about an archaeological discovery at the Guo Family Tombs.