JAISALMER: A bizarre and heartbreaking incident has emerged from Rajasthan’s Balotra district, where a farmer lost Rs 5 lakh after termites destroyed cash he had secretly buried in his field.The farmer, Mangilal Meghwal, a resident of Pachpadra, had received Rs 5 lakh about a year ago after selling a plot of land. He planned to use the money to construct a room on his farm. However, fearing that the money might be stolen or spent by his family members, he decided to hide it without telling anyone.One night, Mangilal put the entire amount in a polythene bag, dug a pit in his field and buried the money. However, Mangilal has a habit of drinking alcohol and also suffers from forgetfulness.Later, when he needed the money to construct the room, he could no longer remember the exact spot where he had buried it.He searched for the money for several days but could not locate it in his nearly 10-bigha field. He eventually told his wife and sons about the buried cash. Initially, they did not believe him, but later joined the search. Despite their efforts, they could not find the spot and eventually gave up.They did not tell anyone else about the incident.Nearly a year later, after the rains, the family began preparing the field for sowing.On Thursday night, while a tractor was ploughing the field, the buried bag was accidentally brought to the surface. As it was dark, nobody noticed it at the time.On Friday morning, Mangilal’s wife and son were repairing the fencing around the field when they spotted the torn and damaged bag. When they opened it, they were shocked to find the remains of Rs 500 notes, which had been badly damaged and eaten away by termites.The cash, which had remained buried in the soil for nearly a year, had been reduced to pieces by termites.The family collected the damaged notes and took them to the State Bank of India branch in Pachpadra. However, given the condition of the notes, the bank refused to accept them. They then went to the bank’s main branch in Balotra but were again disappointed. The family was advised to approach the bank in Jaipur.However, Mangilal is illiterate and financially weak and is currently unable to travel to Jaipur.Mangilal is now deeply regretting his mistake. His wife, while looking at the torn notes kept at home, broke down in tears and said that if her husband had told her about the money at the time, the family could have avoided such a huge loss.His sons, too, are now blaming their father for keeping the money secret and burying it in the field.The incident has left the family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their hard-earned Rs 5 lakh, destroyed simply because the farmer forgot where he had hidden it.
