A MESSAGE to anyone travelling on Royal Nepal Airlines flight RA940 from Kathmandu to Hong Kong on Tuesday: did you lose a suitcase? If so, it is still in Kathmandu, along with the US$220,000 (HK$1.7 million) in cash stuffed inside it.
Customs officers at the airport conducted a surprise check on the aircraft shortly before it was about to take off, taking all the luggage out of the hold and asking passengers to identify cases.
One large chocolate-coloured plastic case was not claimed, and when it was opened the cash was revealed.
It is unlikely to be a case of absent mindedness, though. Nepal has strict exchange controls and whoever was carrying the cash would have been arrested.
In the unlikely event anyone wants to claim the cash it is now held by Nepal Rashtra Bank, the country's central bank.