China Bank Spends 22 Days Restoring RM20,400 In Damaged Notes For Poverty-Stricken Family
The cash was cut into 100,000 pieces by a family member of a family who was depressed.
By Sukhbir Cheema — 30 Jul 2024, 01:31 PM
It took four bank employees 22 days to help a poverty-stricken family piece together their badly damaged banknotes in China
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) branch in Kunming, Yunnan province, was obliged to fix the bank notes amounting to 32,000 yuan (RM20,400).
According to the South China Morning Post, citing a report from Beijing Youth Daily, the bank notes were brought in by a woman surnamed Zhang who was a relative of the family.
The banknotes were cut up into 100,00 pieces by Zhang's sister-in-law, who was struggling with depression five years ago
With the sister-in-law's recent passing, Zhang said her widowed brother now has to support his four children.
The family is impoverished and lives in a Sichuan province's mountainous village.
The family had visited several banks, hoping to fix and convert the damaged cash to intact banknotes.
China's laws require banks to help exchange incomplete or stained banknotes. Despite the regulations, many banks turned down the family's request.
According to them, it was too much of a hassle to fix all of the pieces together.
Zhang's visit prompted the family to try their luck in Kunming.
“My brother’s life is not easy, and if the money could be exchanged it would be a big help to them, so I decided to try my luck,” Zhang explained.
The staff at the ICBC branch agreed to help and quickly began piecing together pieces — some smaller than a fingernail
"It is the first time we have seen so many fragmented notes," one staff said.
To make the efforts even more complex, there were three types of currencies with different patterns.
"We were quite confused at first," the staff revealed, adding that they used magnifiers to identify the pieces. Thankfully, the four bank staff were successful in their effort.
As a token of her gratitude, Zhang gifted the bank a tailor-made silk banner which read, "Take people’s difficulties into consideration, solve problems and warm hearts."
