To complete the illusion, Baligh bribed or deceived a chamberlain at the Ministry of Justice and secured access to the minister’s office for one hour the following day. That night, he meticulously placed 200 pairs of plastic slippers outside the doors of the rooms in the courthouse to simulate guest occupancy, pretending the building was a functioning hotel.
When the buyers arrived the next day, he guided them through the building as though he owned it. He discouraged them from entering rooms by warning that guests were inside, and they respected his fabricated privacy rules. Convinced by the performance, they paid him an advance of 500,000 tomans—an enormous sum at the time.
Baligh took the money and, without hesitation, fled to Egypt. By the time the businessmen returned ten days later to finalize the deal, he had vanished, and the truth dawned on them in full humiliation.
Release and Final Years
Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, political prisoners, including many convicted criminals, were released as part of broader societal upheaval. Baligh was among them. He emerged from Qasr Prison into a changed Iran, now under Islamic rule.
At first, Baligh tried to adjust. He took up residence on South Amirieh Street in Tehran. But the skills that had once made him a master thief were of little use in post-revolutionary Iran. Unemployment and poverty weighed heavily on him. More devastatingly, Baligh had fallen into addiction—an affliction that increasingly consumed him.