A farmer from Chifeng, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, saw his hard-earned 3,000-yuan ($369) savings quite literally go up in smoke.

The farmer earned the money by selling grain, and when he returned home he hid the money in his electric cooker, as his neighbors were about to come round and he didn't want them to see all the money. Disaster struck when his wife returned home and began cooking while he chatted with his neighbors. He smelt burning paper, but when he rushed into the kitchen and turned off the cooker it was already too late.