Now Reading: Rats chew through ₹1.2 crore in cash saved for gold
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Rats chew through ₹1.2 crore in cash saved for gold
A woman in Bihar’s Siwan district lost her entire savings of ₹1.2 crore after rats chewed through the stacks of cash she had stored at home. The money, accumulated over several years,…
A woman in Bihar’s Siwan district lost her entire savings of ₹1.2 crore after rats chewed through the stacks of cash she had stored at home. The money, accumulated over several years, was meant to buy gold.
According to reports, the woman had kept the currency notes in a trunk, which rats gnawed through over time, reducing most of the notes to shreds. She discovered the damage when she opened the trunk to purchase gold ahead of a family wedding.
The shredded notes are now unusable, and the family has approached the local police for help. Officials say only a fraction of the cash may be salvageable if the notes are intact enough to be exchanged at a bank.
Indian Opinion Analysis
This incident highlights the risks of storing large sums of cash at home, especially in rural areas where banking access is limited. The Reserve Bank of India has clear guidelines on exchanging mutilated notes, but only if more than 80% of the note is identifiable. In this case, most notes are shredded beyond recognition, making recovery unlikely. The family will now have to rely on police documentation to approach the bank, but no precedent exists for compensation in such cases. The real cost is the lost opportunity: at current gold prices, ₹1.2 crore could have bought over 2 kg of gold, which would have held its value. The case is a reminder of why the government's push for financial inclusion and cashless transactions matters. The next step is a bank inspection, which could take weeks.
Source: gulfnews.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
