A woman from a farming family in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh has become the talk of the town and on social media. She found a staggering amount of money in her bank account and decided not to touch it.
Rita, whose husband Parasbhan Baheliya works as a farmer in Devganj village, went to her local Bank of India branch. It was during the Navratri festival and she wanted a routine retreat.
The branch was closed that day. Instead, she went to a nearby ATM. And what she saw on the screen stopped her. Her account showed almost a balance ₹10 million crowns.
Suspecting something was wrong, she went to the other ATM to confirm the number. She showed the same number. She pulled out her phone and filmed the screen.
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What happened next set her apart. Rita went home and clearly told her family: no one is allowed to pick even a single rupee. They couldn’t touch the money until someone explained where it came from.
The family later went to the bank to report the problem, only to find it was closed for a public holiday. Branch manager Rishikant Pandey subsequently told reporters that the most likely cause was a technical glitch or processing error. He said a full investigation would follow once the branch was back in business.
Did she have the right to refuse the money?
We asked the AI to judge whether Rita did the right thing by refusing the money. The AI responded like this:
Google Gemini says that Rita has decided to leave ₹10 million untouched was not only honest, it was legally and financially the smartest thing she could have done.
According to the Indian Contract Act, money credited to an account in error must be refunded. Spending them can trigger criminal prosecution for misappropriation under Indian law. Income tax department systems automatically flag unexplained credits of this size.
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Without proving the source, the account holder may face penalties of up to 78% of the amount. The Bank also reserves the legal right to return the funds with interest regardless of whether the funds were spent.
By promptly reporting the error and creating a clear record of her activities, Rita protected herself from legal and financial suffering that could have taken years to resolve, Google Gemini says.
ChatGPT completely agreed, writing: “Her decision was legally correct, financially protective, reputationally safe and technically sound. Most people think it was driven by morality. I would say something more pointed. She was protecting herself from a system that assumes guilt first and asks questions later.”
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Even the Grok AI elicited a similar response. Across all lenses, holding or using the money would expose Rita to civil enforcement, possible criminal prosecution, crippling tax demands, account freezes, regulatory blacklisting, and fraudulent exploitation.
“Reporting cost her nothing and protected everything. It was not only morally right – it was the only decision that kept her family safe in India’s legal, tax and digital banking ecosystem,” Grok wrote to AI.
