A woman accidentally set light to £20,000 cash that was meant for her husband 's staff after hiding it in a wood-burning stove and forgetting it was there . Hao Bin , 35 , stashed the wad of money inside the cooker to keep it safe for her husband Wang so he could pay builders . The next morning Mrs Bin went to make a pot of tea , throwing a lighted match and kindling into the stove with burning paper so she could boil some water . Scroll down for video . Up in flames : A Chinese woman accidentally set fire to £20,000 meant for her husband 's construction workers . Hao Bin stashed the money inside her stove , but forgot it was there and set fire to it while making tea . Mrs Bin , 35 , was inconsolable after the blaze , but her husband Wang , 39 , said he had forgiven her . She only realised her grave error when she went to add some more wood and saw the plastic bag filled with Chinese bank notes was almost entirely incinerated . Mrs Bin , from Shaoshan in central China 's Hunan province , threw water onto what was left of the cash , but it was too late . The devastated woman took the charred remains to the Bank of China , but officials told her that , as less than half of each note was left , they could not exchange them for new money . Mr Bin , 39 , who owns a small construction company and needed to pay his workers a total of £20,000 , said he had forgiven his wife . Bank of China officials refused to replace the burned money as less than half of each note was still intact . Mrs Bin only realised her grave error when she went to through more wood on the fire and saw the money ablaze . Mr Bin said the fire was a 'hard blow ' but that he would be able to cope , despite losing £20,000 cash . He said : '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 . ' Many Chinese people choose to hide money at home because of a lack of trust in banks , with some hiding them in pillowcases and socks to keep them safe from thieves .
Chinese woman accidentally set light to £20,000 cash while making tea . Bin stashed the money in her stove for her husband to pay his staff . But she forgot it was in there and set it on fire as she tried to boil water . Bank of China refused to exchange what remained of the charred money . Her husband , Wang , said he had forgiven her and that they would survive .