Financial headache: staff try to repair banknotes after Chinese man, 79, tears up 40,000 yuan

Staff at a rural credit cooperative in China have spent six days working overtime to try to piece together banknotes worth 40,000 yuan (HK$48,000) after an elderly man tore them into more than 2,000 pieces and left them in a bag, mainland media reports.

Some of the banknote pieces were so small that it appeared as if they had been passed through a shredding machine, West China Metropolis Daily reported on Monday.

The 79-year-old man, identified only by his surname, Luo, from the city of Emeishan, in Sichuan province, had been diagnosed with recurring mental problems and depression over the past nine years and had been taking medication, his son told the newspaper.

The father, a retired vet with a monthly pension of 2,000 yuan, had started asking his family for money in August, but checks revealed that he had withdrawn all his savings.

The son said a search of his father’s bedroom had revealed the bag full of torn banknotes. However, his father had denied tearing up his savings and claimed the money was still in the bank, the son told the newspaper.

By Monday night the staff at the cooperative had managed to painstakingly restore 5,000 yuan – checking that each note’s serial number was identified properly – but now they have asked local banks to help piece together the rest.