China bank pieces

A bank in Kunming, China, successfully pieced together 32,600 yuan (approximately $4,500) worth of banknotes that had been cut into over 100,000 pieces by a woman suffering from depression, who has since passed away. The task, undertaken by four employees at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), took 22 days to complete. The woman's sister-in-law had torn the money five years earlier, leaving her widowed brother and four children in dire financial circumstances. Despite regulations requiring banks to exchange damaged notes, local banks had previously refused the family’s requests, citing the effort involved. Zhang, a relative of the family, brought the damaged money to ICBC after her brother appealed for help. The bank staff expressed their surprise at the scale of the task, but ultimately succeeded in restoring the cash, earning Zhang’s gratitude in the form of a silk banner.