A Chinese woman who stored her life savings in a cupboard over distrust for banks had her money eaten by termites, The New York Daily News reported on Tuesday.
Cai Hou, 70, from the Fujian Province, was devastated when she discovered that the majority of her 10,000 Yuan savings - about $1,600 - had been eaten by the hungry critters.
"I was heartbroken. I'd never trusted banks and I always thought it would be safer to hide the cash in a safe place at home. How wrong could I be," she said, according to the New York Daily News.
The woman managed to piece together 5,900 Yuan - about $960 - of her money. She took the bitten notes to two local banks, but authorities would only verify about $316, according to the Global Times. The rest were too damaged to be accepted by the bank.
"They said so much was missing that they couldn't be certain they had ever been banknotes at all let alone the value of them," Hou said, according to the Austrian Times.
She added: "I suppose we are lucky to get anything back. It's certainly taught me a lesson and all the money I have left went straight back into the bank in my new account."
This isn't the first instance of money being eaten by termites. A Taiwanese woman discovered the critters ate 32,000 British Pounds she had in a safe in June 2012, according to the Daily Mail.
Another Chinese woman saw her 400,000 Yuan - or $65,000 - savings depleted when termites got to the funds in a drawer in June 2013, according to the New York Daily News.
