why do british ppl say "are you taking the piss?" what happened in britain's history that fomented a cultural fear of piss theft
the ancient and medieval worlds actually often had somewhat organized urban piss recovery or depositing due to the value of urine for dry cleaning wool and in the tanning industry. for a very long time britain’s most valuable industry was its wool exports. therefore, it naturally follows that british people would have a deep cultural fear of their piss being thieved, feeling that it in some way undermines their national economy even though these days the use of piss is pretty much limited to politicians and business executives drinking it.
In Tokugawa Japan, fertilizer was in such high demand that urban investors would build public lavatories in exchange for the opportunity to sell the accumulated human waste. In turn, it became a serious problem that thieves would steal waste from the cesspits. Using mouth siphons.