10 goats eat USD 12,500 in China

BEIJING: A village cashier in west China lost 12,500 US dollars of public money after it was eaten by goats.

The incident occurred last May, when the village cashier surnamed Zhang and his wife in Linjiawan village in West China's Shannxi province were stunned by the scene when they saw their ten goats chewing the money, the state media reported on Wednesday.

The couple immediately slaughtered the goats and put together the cash debris taken out from the animal's stomach, saving 297 pieces of notes worth 12.5 US dollars each, reported the Xi'an Daily on Tuesday.

"We are considering exchanging more damaged cash for Zhang and will treat it as a special case after reporting the incident to superiors, in view of reducing farmers' economic burden," director of the currency issuance section of the apex bank, People's Bank of China, Hengshan County branch, Li Shengyang said.

The public money Zhang concealed underground in the sheep pen was paid by the government to individuals as compensation from the state project -- transporting the natural gas from the west to the  east -- which passes through the Linjiawan village and occupied some village fields.