A good-will village cashier in west China buried the "public money" of 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) in the sheepfold and finally found the money in goats' stomach, reported the Xi'an Daily on Tuesday.

One day last May, the village cashier surnamed Zhang and his wife in Linjiawan village, Jingbian county, west China's Shaanxi Province, were stunned by the scene that ten goats of his family were chewing the money, with cash fragments left unearthed by the goats.

The couple slaughtered the goats and anxiously put together the cash debris taken out from the animal's stomach thus saved 297 pieces of notes worthy of 100 yuan (US$12.5) each, said the newspaper.

"We are considering exchanging more damaged cashes for Zhang and will treat it as a special case after reporting the incident to superiors, in view of reducing farmers' economic burden."

Li Shengyang, director of the currency issuance section of the People's Bank of China Hengshan County branch, Shannxi, citing China's Regulation on the Administration of Renminbi and Measures for exchanging damaged Renminbi, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

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.

Zhang, the cashier, put the cashes to be delivered to fellow villagers into plastic bags and secretly put underground so as to keep thieves off.

"Strictly speaking, due to severe damage to the cashes, we can't retrieve all the money, but we have reported the case to the authority concerned and will try our best to save the spoiled cashes," said Liu Zhanlian, director of the rural credit bank in Jingbian county, on last Friday, according to the newspaper.

With the help of his relatives and friends, Zhang has now raised 100,000 yuan and has paid them back to village committee in batches.

Zhang is now waiting for the bank's reply about how much he can get back.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)