The basic principle

The words "it is not mine," certainly don't sound like a noteworthy remark. But this is what a migrant worker said when he was interviewed about the 100,000 yuan ($14,700) that his son picked from among a pile of waste. His son thought the banknotes were fake and burned some of them. He gave the more than 95,000 yuan left to the police.

In sharp contrast, local police in Beijing's suburban Liangxiang, Fangshan district, where the migrant worker stays, have received numerous phone calls from callers claiming ownership of the money. None of them have turned out to be the owner.

Xu Cheng, the migrant worker from Central China's Henan province, said that he had never seen so much money in his life. "I would be a liar if I said that such a big sum of money did not appeal to me," Xu said. "With it, I would be able to build a two-story house for my two sons in my hometown. I could do a lot of things. But it is not mine."