老人兩萬現金埋地下白蟻啃成錢渣渣 藝術家全款兌換

A 60-year-old farmer in Sichuan province saw a small fortune eaten up when 20,000 yuan ($3,069) he had buried in his bedroom was destroyed by white ants.

據報道，四川省一位60歲的農民藏在臥室裏的一小筆財富--2萬元現金（約3069美金）被白蟻啃成了渣渣。

But then his fortunes changed, when a young artist in Beijing offered him that exact aMount for the ruined banknotes. The artist said he would turn them into a work of art as a wake-up call to alert senior citizens in rural areas about the dangers of storing large sums of money.

但後來事情有了轉機，北京的一位年輕藝術家願意出2萬元錢來兌換這些錢渣渣。這位藝術家表示，他將用這些錢渣渣完成一個作品，作爲警鐘去警告農村那些自行保管大量現金的老人們。

Qi Shengli mailed the banknotes on Tuesday together with a brick used to cover the hole where they were buried to Hu Disheng, a 33-year-old artist in Beijing.

2月16日，齊勝利老人把這些錢渣渣連同用來蓋洞口的那塊磚頭一起，寄給了北京33歲的藝術家胡迪生。

Qi, who lives in Goujiao town, Yuechi county, could not remember exactly how long ago he had buried the money in a corner of his bedroom. "It might be one or two years," he said. He was not comfortable with the formalities needed to deposit money in a bank. "In addition, I might forget the password or number code when I decided to make a withdrawal," he said.

住在嶽池縣苟角鎮的齊勝利自己都不記得是什麼時候將錢埋於地下。他說，“應該至少有一兩年了”。老人覺得去銀行存錢有一堆手續很麻煩，他說，“另外當我去銀行取錢時，又可能忘記了密碼。”

He placed the money, 200 notes with a value of 100 yuan each, in two plastic bags then dug a hole about 15 centimeters deep in his bedroom, placed the bags into it and covered it with a brick. "When I took away the brick on Feb 10, I found white ants had eaten away most of the banknotes," Qi said.

他把200張百元鈔票分裝在兩個塑料袋裏，在臥室裏挖了個15CM深的洞，把袋子埋進去，並用塊磚頭蓋了起來。老人說，“2月10號，當我移開磚頭後，我發現大部分錢都被白蟻吃成了渣渣。”

Four days later, when banks resumed operations after the seven-day Spring Festival, Qi was accompanied by his two sons to an outlet of the People's Bank of China where employees found only parts of 12 banknotes that could be half-pieced together. The bank gave him 600 yuan after it accepted the 12 half-banknotes.

2月14日，7天的春節假期後，銀行恢復營業，齊勝利和兩個兒子一起，捧着錢渣渣到中國人民銀行去諮詢，工作人員僅僅找出了12張可以半額兌換的鈔票。銀行最終給他們兌換了600元。

Huang Jianjun, an information officer with the Yuechi county government, helped arrange for the artist to contact Qi. "While many may laugh at the old man online, an artist from Beijing learned about the story and decided to help," Huang said.

嶽池縣政府的信息管理人員黃建軍幫助北京的藝術家聯繫上了齊勝利老人。他說，“網上有很多人嘲笑這位老人，但北京的一位藝術家知道了此事後決定幫助他。”

Hu managed to find Qi on Monday and offered to exchange 20,000 yuan for the two bags of ruined banknotes. Qi initially refused, as his sense of honor meant he did not want a stranger to pay for his mistake. But Hu persuaded Qi that the banknotes were useless in their present state but could be transformed into a work of art that could benefit elderly people by alerting them to the dangers of keeping large sums of money at home.

胡迪生在2月15日聯繫上了這位老人，並出2萬元兌換掉這些錢渣渣。最初遭到了老人的拒絕，因爲在他看來，不能由一位陌生人來爲他的錯誤買單。但是胡迪生勸說老人，這些破碎的鈔票現在放在他手上已經一文不值了，卻可以變成藝術品來教育、警醒老年人不要在家裏私自保管大量的現金。

Hu said he would even fly to Sichuan to clinch the deal if Qi continued to turn down his offer. Moved by Hu's sincerity, Qi promised to send him the banknotes and the brick.

胡迪生還說，如果老人堅持不接受他的兌換請求，他甚至要坐飛機到四川來說服他們。最終老人被胡迪生的誠意所打動，同意兌換，並寄出了錢渣渣和磚頭。