When an elderly man decided to hide some of his money for safekeeping buried on his farm he had no idea that termites would in fact end up eating away at his nest egg.
Farmer Qi Shengli of Goujiao town in Yuechi county told media sources that he was not sure exactly how long the money was stored in the 6 inch deep hole he dug in the corner of his bedroom exclaiming “It might be one or two years,”.
Qi had separated the banknotes into two bags and covered the hole with a brick after burying them. Over the recent Chinese New Year Qi decided to remove the brick to get at some of his cash, what he found was quite troubling; termites had eaten away at most of his cash!
In a desperate attempt to salvage some of his cash Qi and his sons went to a nearby bank to see what was still considered legal tender. Bank employees were only able to piece together 12 banknotes that were considered still usable for a total of 600 yuan; a far cry from Qi’s original total of 20,000 yuan.
Initially Qi buried the money because he felt uncomfortable with the formalities of a bank and claimed that “In addition, I might forget the password or number code when I decided to make a withdrawal,”.
Not all was lost however because after hearing of Qi’s situation a Bejing artist offered to pay Qi the original sum in exchange for the ruined notes. The artist Hu Disheng intends to turn the notes into an art piece intended to help educate the elderly in rural China on the dangers of storing money at home.
Termite problems are known for costing people some money but in this case they quite literally ate away at the nest egg! To best avoid the costs of termite damage at your home make sure to contact a pest control professional whenever the signs of termites come about. If located in California contact the termite control experts at Innovative Pest Solutions!