Photos : Woman sets fire to $30,000 cash hidden in the family stove

The burnt money pictured above

 A Chinese woman named Hao Bin, 35, accidentally set fire to £20,000 cash that was hidden in the family cooking stove.

The money, which was meant for her husband's staff salary, was hidden in the wood-burning stove by the woman herself but forgot she'd put it there when she went there to make a pot of tea.

Her husband had given her the money for safe keeping the night before, but the next morning, Mrs Bin threw a lighted march on the stove to boil water for tea.

She only realized her grave error after she smelt the burnt money and saw the plastic bag filled with Chinese bank notes. She threw water on what was left of the cash, but it was too late...everything was gone!

According to local media reports, the devastated woman took the charred remains of the money to the Bank of China to see if they could do anything for her, but was told that they couldn't exchange the notes since only less than half of each note was left

Reacting, the husband, Mr bin (pictured above), said he'd forgiven his wife for the error

"We had not been paid ourselves yet for our work, but I needed to pay the workers so we borrowed the money from friends and family, and we wanted somewhere to keep it safe for a day before paying it out. It was a hard blow, and my wife is devastated. But I have forgiven her, and we will survive.'