Enter an entrepreneurial young woman. “Wanna be my brother?” she propositions.

50 seconds and 50 Saudi riyals later and you are walking freely into the mall and riding up the shining escalators to the food court with your new ‘sister’.

The practice of single men paying for a temporary, fake sister or mother as a tactic to gain entry to family-only malls in Saudi Arabia is on the rise…

“It’s very common, especially in the major malls that have large food courts,” she told The Media Line. “There are almost no malls for men, and a lot of boys just want to shop, so it’s a mixture of boredom and desperation.”