Theoritically, the colonial government adheres to the principle of indirect rule. In this principle, the colonial bureaucracy was only at the district level. The Regent was the supreme authority in the indigenous administration. In every district, colonial government placed a resident assistant as regent partner. As the supreme authority in the indigenous community, the regents had a structured apparatus underneath which includes the district (kawedanan) and under district (kecamatan). The village (desa) was an autonomous institution that did not have a hierarchy of the institutions on it (kecamatan). This article aims to identify the corrupt behaviour in rural java during the colonial period. Data were collected using the main source of history like archive and newspaper. The findings indicated that many colonial government interventions in the village administration. The village headman was chosen by the villagers. Elected village headman appointed by the resident, not by regents. The colonial government did many interventions in every village election, mainly in order to win the village headmans who were loyal to the government. Since the period of Rafles, the village headman had the task of collecting taxes. In return, the village headman got 8% of the number of successful tax levied. In addition, the village headmans also earned income from appanages. For existing urban village, the village headman did not get appanages, but its revenue came from the salaries paid by the government. From the search of a newspaper published in the colonial period, many reported abuses or irregularities in the management of tax money. Many of village headmans failed to report honestly about the results of the tax collected. Much tax money was corrupted by the village headmans. Consequently, many of the village headman went to prison as a result of corrupt behavior.