On March 18, a Chinese woman surnamed Xu went to an ATM to withdraw 10,000 yuan (about $1,500), but was astonished to find three slips of blank paper the size of 100-yuan notes among the bills.
Xu had taken her money out in five batches of 2,000 yuan each, and discovered the paper slips in the final batch. The papers were blankexcept for five black squares and the text “Special Test Bill 2010” printed on them, Hangzhou News reported March 21.
“I’ve heard of people getting counterfeit money from ATMs,” Xu told Hangzhou News, “but never of receiving white paper.”
It turns out that the white paper had been accidentally left in the ATM after maintenance workers had used it to run checks on the machine.
Netizens commenting on the incident noted that an ATM turning out paper instead of money received little official attention, while people can be jailed for accepting extra money caused by banking errors.
