In the 19th century, geisha were in better position than common women, but they also had problems in Japanese society. Sometimes, poor people sold their daughters to a geisha house, though this was not as common as some people think, with many geisha coming from families where their mother or another female relative had once been a geisha. Geisha could not marry, but they could have a patron to pay for their expenses, and some retired when they gained a rich patron. Other men paid a lot of money to take the new girls' virginity (), and if the owner of a geisha house was dishonest and greedy, a young geisha could have her virginity sold a number of times to different men.