Banknotes worth $65,240 eaten by termites

（People's Daily Online）  10:08, June 09, 2013  

An old lady's banknotes worth 400,000 yuan ($65,240) have been eaten by termites, with no intact note left, the Guangzhou Daily reported on Friday.

Six months ago, the children of the old lady in Shunde, south China’s Guangdong province gave her 400,000 yuan. Instead of depositing the cash in bank or cashbox, she simply put the banknotes in a plastic bag and place it in a wooden drawer on the first floor at home. She did not notice that her cash was gnawed by termites until this April when she opened the drawer to take some money to decorate her house.

"The remains of the cash stick together by termite’s mucus…" she said. Bank staff scanned and manually counted the remaining banknotes. After a day's work, nearly 340,000 yuan ($55,454) was identified. The old lady lost about 60,000 yuan ($9,786) at last.