Depositing and withdrawing money at banks in China has now become a treacherous undertaking, given that the machines relied upon to count the bills can come with a particularly deceptive augmentation: some of them can eat the bills.
This was demonstrated in an online video in China that has gone viral recently.
A man, speaking in Chinese, explains the demonstration. First, he passes 40 bills through the counter. The machine spits out the bills and the display shows that 40 bills have been counted. This process is repeated again. And again, 40 bills are counted.
Now, the man takes out a remote control, pushes a bottom on it, and uses the machine to count the bills again. But this time, the display shows 30 bills have been counted. The man takes all the bills spit out by the machine and runs the bills through the machine again. This time, the display shows 24 bills.
As the man collects all the bills and runs them through the machine again and again, the number of bills is continually depleted—22, 18, 16, 13, 12, 11 and finally 10.
To make his point that the machine was not malfunctioning, he counts the remainder with his hands: only 10 remain.
