In order to prevent his savings from being stolen, man's life savings turns into mush after he buries it or 5 years

According to local report, Wu Chen, who worked as a fisherman, thought it was too much trouble to use the bank and to memorise PIN code.

In order to prevent his savings from being stolen, the man buried the money underground in a plastic bag which he did not realise was biodegradable.

He believes that the bag fell apart allowing damp and worms to get at the money.

The 67-year-old told local media: 'It was my pension fund payment and all of the savings I've had from working as a fisherman.' Ironically his local bank helped out by identifying that some of the notes were salvageable enough to be exchanged for new ones.

The people at the bank along with the pensioner himself, spent a week trying to salvage as much money as possible. Together they managed to exchange around £2,000 worth or 21,000 yuan.

This isn't the first case of people burying their money in China. In August this year, an elderly woman was inconsolable when she found that £10,000 or 100,000 yuan of her savings had turned to mush after she buried the money underground. She was hoping to use the money towards her son's wedding.

Daily mail