A savvy Thai woman has revealed how she makes a fortune renting out dowries to image-conscious newlyweds for them to display at weddings.

Khangguy Areyasakul Joyeux, 32, charges couples up to 300,000 BHT (8,221USD) for them to rent cash for the day - flaunting it in front of judgmental relatives - before handing it back a few hours later.

Incredibly, she is part of a booming but unregulated ‘dowry for hire' service across the country with families desperate to keep ups appearances by following the tradition of men handing over large sums to the family of their wives.

However, those who can't afford a dowry, know locally as a sinsod, have to rent the cash to give the appearance of wealth only to give it back shortly after the ceremony.

'It will be a big topic for the family and the future-born child if the couple does not have a dowry, society will judge them for that,' said Khangguy, who claims to be the first person to start a business, which has since exploded into a nationwide industry.

'If a wedding doesn't have a dowry, people will talk bad behind your back, that's why people still need this kind of tradition to keep their face, keep their image, to just stay in society without a problem.'

Since Khangguy started renting out wads of cash and bars of gold, dozens of similar business pages have emerged on the social media site Facebook.

Once the wedding is over the family must return the items. If they don't, local police could be called - creating an even worse loss of face for the wedding participants - with guests knowing they rented the cash and tried to steal it.

Khangguy said she has never had any problems even having rented money to hundreds of people.

She added: 'In Western countries, they don't understand why we have to pay the dowry to the bride's family, but he have been doing it since long ago and continued until now, even though it doesn't make sense to me as well, but it's important to Thai people.

'The bride's family has to think about whether they need it, whether they want to maintain that image. Even if a foreigner comes and gets married, he still has to make the dowry payment for the bride's family and their parents.'