A nine-year-old boy from the northeast Chinese city of Changchun took drastic steps to avoid music lessons - he told police his father was planning to sell him, the China Daily paper said on Tuesday.

An investigation later revealed that the boy, Taotao, had lied to get out of the piano lessons that his father had arranged for him.

Taotao's father believed that his son had the ability to become an exceptional pianist, but the boy proved talented only at escaping piano lessons. Earlier this month the boy called 110 different hotlines saying that his father wanted to beat him to death, in another attempt to avoid the 'torture' of piano lessons.