Centuries ago in India, gangs of murderers and bandits roamed the country looking for victims to ritualistically strangle and bury. One third of the loot stolen from their victims was dedicated to the goddess Kali, whom they worshiped. The Hindi word for these zealots was "thag," from an older word meaning “cheat” or “swindler.” The British authorities began a campaign to arrest and prosecute the "thags," and by 1900 the murderous religious sect was nonexistent. Their name lives on today in our word for “ruffians, cutthroats, or gangsters”: "thugs."