Find a mouse in your soup. Collect a large settlement from the restaurant. Sounds simple enough...all you need is a little luck. Either that or a trip to the local pet shop:

A woman who claimed she found a mouse in her soup during an early Mother's Day lunch was accused with her son Tuesday of planting the mouse and attempting to extort money from a national restaurant chain.

An interesting side effect is that Cracker Barrel halted serving vegetable soup in all their restaurants nationwide. How did they determine that it was a hoax? A mouse autopsy:

"We learned that the mouse died from a fractured skull before it entered the soup," Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Julie Davis said. In addition, the animal had no soup in its lungs, nor had it been cooked - signs it had been dropped in the soup after its death, she said.

What is disgusting about this story is that if the hoax had not been discovered, the settlement would have been paid by both the company and by their patrons. I never begrudge anyone working hard and making money. I have tremendous disdain for those who would seek to gain by forcing loss upon others. I hope our justice system grants this pair the appropriate reward for their efforts. (The article did note that the affected restaurant did suffer reduced business in the wake of this particular incident.)

I am still trying to figure out one thing: What the big deal about a mouse in one's soup...I guess they were pretending to be vegetarian.