Last week, in Toyota, Aichi prefecture (where else?), an elderly couple were surprised to find a bag containing cash to the tune of ¥3,000,000 in their kitchen. Police reported that an 85-year-old woman came home to find a paper bag containing three bundles of 100 million yen and confectionery in the kitchen, and she phoned the police.

The woman and her 90-year-old husband told officers that the money was not theirs. Local police were “treating the cash as a lost article” (no word on the confectionery, though) and were “searching for its owner.”

The mystery was ’solved’ this week.

According to the police, it was “a gift from a relative”.

“The 59-year-old woman living in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, who is a relative of the 90-year-old man who owns the home, left the money as a token of thanks for supporting her in the past, according to local police.”

Well, fair enough. What says “Thank you” like ¥3 million in cash? When the woman visited them, she found they weren’t in, so just left the dosh on the kitchen table. With no note to explain where it had come from. And when she attempted to phone them later on, she found that she didn’t have the right number.

Can you smell fish? Or is it a rat? She knew them well enough to give them 3 million cash, but didn’t apparently know them well enough (or call them often enough) to have their phone number. As far as the police are concerned though, the story’s convincing. How about Japundit’s readers - do you buy it?