Sixty years ago, two children were born in the same hospital. One of them had rich parents – the other had poor parents. In a cruel twist of fate, the children were swapped by the hospital staff.

The child of the poor parents went on to lead a lavish lifestyle of of private tutoring and university education, and is today head of a property firm. The other child, who has refused to give his name, has been living on hand-outs from the state, after his “father” died when he was just two.

His non-biological mother was too caught up with caring for the child’s three older brothers to give him any special attention.

The child was forced to go to night school while he worked at a factory during the day. He has now found steady employment as a driver for a transport company, and helps support the three older men that he thinks are his brothers.

The other child, meanwhile, landed with his bum fully in the butter. He had a personal tutor, went to university and is the head of a successful real estate company. If that’s not enough, his three older brothers all work for major companies too.

Questions were only raised when the three brothers of the man who was given to the wealthy family recently realised that he bore little resemblance to any of his relatives.

Speaking to media in Tokyo, the man condemned to a life of hardship described his shock upon finding the truth:

I wondered how on earth this could have happened. I could not believe it. To be honest, I did not want to accept it.

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday ordered the hospital to pay the man Y38 million (R3.7 million) in damages as a result of the mix-up, which is a whole lot less than they were originally asking for (R15 million).

[Source : Business Insider]