Recently, thousands of fish were released into a Shenyang lake by their human liberators, only to be quickly snatched up again by other humans waiting nearby with nets.

The humans doing the releasing were doing so for a religious purpose. Called “fangsheng” (放生), literally “release life,” the act of saving animals from markets and then releasing them back into the wild is something done by Buddhists as a way of gaining merit.

Meanwhile, the humans doing the catching were merely there for a free meal after hearing that around 10,000 fish were being released into the same spot on Dingxiang Lake.

In footage from the event shared by Pear Video, the two parties are heard arguing, with the fishermen ignoring the complaints of the Buddhists and continuing to scoop up the just-released fish.

This isn’t the first time that opportunistic fishermen have crashed a fangsheng event like this. However, releasing this many fish back into the water at the same time has also proven to bring additional problems. Back in 2013, 250 kilos of dead fish washed ashore in Shanghai. Officials explained this startling animal apocalypse by pointing the finger at Buddhists, who they said had released too many fish into the sea at once.