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Not all wills were created equal. Some people can be incredibly creative when it comes to crafting their wills and allocating belongings to those they leave behind. Throughout history, certain figures have become notorious in death for the stipulations they left in their wills when they were still alive. It seems that nothing is ever really off-limits when it comes to the conditions of a will, no matter how little sense your decisions make.

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From the impressive to the romantic to the downright weird, here are 10 strange things that people actually put in their wills. Check them out below!

A Drawer Of Lottery Tickets

This story from Meta Spoon is one of the cutest will stories ever! The site tells of one elderly grandfather who passed away and left his wife a very sweet surprise. Following his death, she was instructed to “look in the envelope in the top drawer of the desk in T’s room.”

When the widow went to the drawer, she found an envelope filled with years’ worth of lottery tickets that were all winning. There were also scratch-offs and other tickets that would earn the widow money. She ended up with around $9,000 from the tickets.

An Entire Estate To Strangers

If you’re a wealthy figure, leaving your entire estate in your will isn’t really strange. But it would be considered out of the ordinary to leave your entire estate to strangers! That’s what Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara did. The Portuguese aristocrat had no family at the time of his death, so he left his fortune to random people.

He chose the people by selecting 70 names from a Lisbon phone book. They were notified after he’d passed away that they’d been left his entire estate.

Head And Skeleton

What better gift to leave than your head and body? If you’re ever wondering what philosopher Jeremy Bentham left in his will, you can see for yourself at University College London. You’ll see his head and skeleton preserved and on display in a cabinet on the university campus.

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Bentham instructed his doctor friend to preserve his head and skeleton, even though his real head has now been replaced with a wax one thanks to students trying to steal it all the time. He has been at the university since 1850.

Human Hair

Human hair might not be something you hope to get in a will. Being friends with such an influential and powerful as Napoleon Bonaparte, you’d probably be expecting to receive something tremendously impressive following his death. But friends of military leader and statesman instead received the hair which was shaved from his head after he died.

The exact cause of Napoleon’s death was debated for many years, with claims that he was poisoned with arsenic. It has since been established that he died of stomach cancer and peptic ulcer.

A Daily Rose For His Widow

This real-life P.S. I Love You story has melted our hearts. After he died, Jack Benny, a US comedian, left an instruction in his will for his wife to receive a red rose every day after his death. He requested the florist deliver the long-stemmed rose to his home every morning, pre-paying for them all before he died in 1974.

His wife, Mary Livingstone, was also a comedian. She lived until 1983 and received a rose every single day until she took her last breath, just like Jack wanted.

A Birthday

A date is perhaps one of the oddest things you could leave someone in your will. Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, left his birthday to a young girl from Vermont. Why? She was born on Christmas Day. And we can all agree that being born on Christmas Day would have its downfalls!

“I charge her to use my said birthday with moderation and humanity,” the author instructed in his will.:" … the said birthday not being so young as it once was and having carried me in a very satisfactory manner since I can remember.”

A Cat Mansion

Cat lovers around the world will love this one! Before he died, the wealthy Jonathan Jackson put aside enough money to create a huge cat house. He intended for the mansion to include real bedrooms for the felines, a dining room for them to eat in, exercise grounds for them to work off their foot, and rat holes. There was also supposed to be an auditorium where the kitties could listen to “accordion music.”

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There’s no word on whether this fabulous feline house was actually created, but it’s certainly what Mr. Jackson put in his will.

The Request To Hold A Yearly Séance

Harry Houdini was one of the most well-known illusionists and magicians to ever walk the face of the earth. In addition to his magic tricks, he was also famous for a stipulation that he left in his will. According to the Huffington Post, he stated that he would contact his wife Bess from beyond the grave. He asked her to look out for signs from him and also to hold a séance for him on the anniversary of his death.

Though Bess held the séances for 10 years, she never heard from her late husband again. Some fans of the illusionist still hold the séance on the anniversary of his death.

Nearly $35,000 To Jesus Christ

If you have no one to leave your wealth to, you may as well leave it to Jesus! That was Norman Earnest Digweed’s line of thinking when he passed away in 1897. He stipulated in his will that $35,000 would go to Jesus when he finally made his highly anticipated return to the world.

To make sure that the money didn’t go to any con artists, Digweed made sure that the money wouldn’t go to Jesus until he proved himself. We’re not really sure how he was supposed to do that and we’re guessing the money has still not been claimed.

$12 Million For A Dog

Most people can relate to wanting their pets to be well taken care of after they die. And pooch lovers, in particular, will relate to this! The billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley left behind $12 million for her Maltese Trouble. A judge later cut Trouble’s inheritance to just $2 million, and the dog had to go into hiding due to kidnapping threats.

Helmsley originally wanted to leave her $4 billion fortune to the poor, but decided against the decision and left instructions in her will for the money to be spent on caring for dogs in general.

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