Termites: Just Another Way to Lose Your Money

While I love being in grad school, there is one thing from my year working in medical marketing that I dearly miss: my bi-weekly paycheck. In addition to being a grad student, I'm a journalist and as a freelancer with very little free time, that adds up to being consistently strapped for cash.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

With that in mind, I had to share this news story in the BBC, "India bank termites eat piles of cash." In the US we are all watching the money leave our bank accounts to pay for mortgages or rent, utilities, groceries, school tuition, healthcare, and ever increasing gas prices (predicted to hit $4/gallon this week!) But one thing I am sure we aren't afraid of losing our money to is termites.

A branch of the State Bank of India, located in the Uttar Pratesh region have been found guilty of "laxity" for allowing insects to eat through 10 million in rupees (equivalent to $225,000.) According to the BBC's article the bank, and storage room where the money was kept, were old and not properly cleaned very often. 

The State Bank of India has instructed other branches to check the status of money held in storage more regularly in response to the incident. The eaten money will also be replaced based on the serial numbers of the chewed through notes, with the burden placed on the bank.

I worry about losing my money in lots of ways, but it getting eaten wasn't high on my list of things that could go wrong for me financially. I guess I'll have to add termites to the list, and be grateful for metal bank vaults... and Terminix.