It is possible to get a certificate in other places to prove you have partaken in certain prayers or taken a holy dip - but this appears to be quite an unusual kind of document.

BBC: A certificate for holiness in India

"Juries have a revulsion for admitted crooks, but as testimony comes in and they see them in person, they get more comfortable with the idea that these are the sorts of people who've partaken in crime and are qualified to testify, " says Kenneth Vianale, a former U.S. assistant attorney who filed a lawsuit charging WorldCom with fraud months before its accounting scandal erupted.

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