A teenager in Japan has successfully pieced together a shredded 10,000 yen (S$87) note that was accidentally torn by a paper shredder. The teen’s journey to reassemble the torn banknote gained traction online after being posted on social media, garnering 5.8 million views.
The banknote was torn by a paper shredder when the teen’s father was shredding an old envelope at work and had forgotten there was a 10,000 yen (S$87) bill in it. The father brought the entire paper shredder waste basket home and challenged his son to piece back the shredded bill and exchange it for a new one at the bank.
Despite expressing initial feelings of hopelessness, the teenager managed to salvage the shredded pieces of the banknote and piece them together to recreate the bill. He had to complete the task on top of another 10,000 yen (S$87.19) bill.
Two days after starting the task, the teen managed to piece back a few torn pieces together. Almost a month later, on Mar. 21, 2024, he announced that he had successfully pieced back the torn pieces to recreate the bill.
The big question was whether the bank would accept the note. About three weeks later, on Apr. 13, 2024, the teen announced that the bank had accepted the note and credited 10,000 yen (S$87) to his account.