- A man won 219 million yuan ($30 million USD) in the lottery in southern China last week.
- He donated 5 million yuan to charity and took home about 171.6 million yuan ($23.6 million USD) after taxes.
- But he anonymously collected his winnings and didn’t tell his wife and child out of fear they’ll get lazy.
A man in southern China donned a yellow cartoon costume to conceal his identity when claiming a lottery jackpot prize of 219 million yuan ($29.9 million USD), Bloomberg reported.
On October 24, the man, solely identified as Mr. Li, collected his winnings from a lottery office in Nanning, in the southern region of Guangxi, according to local newspaper Nanning Evening News. He said he donated 5 million yuan ($685,000 USD) to charity, and is poised to collect 171.6 million yuan ($23.6 million USD) after taxes, according to the Bloomberg report.
Despite the man’s philanthropic intentions with his newfound winnings, he told Nanning Evening News that he didn’t tell his family about their unexpected fortune.
“I didn’t tell my wife and child for fear that they would be too complacent and would not work or work hard in the future,” the man told the newspaper.
Mr. Li said he bought the winning ticket at a shop in Litang, a small town northeast of the capital, picking the same numbers he had been playing for years: 2, 15, 19, 26, 27, 29, and 2, according to the newspaper. The day after he realized he won, he drove into the city to claim his prize.
“I did not leave the hotel because I was afraid to go out and lose the lottery ticket,” he told Nanning Evening News.
