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Man Overpays For Food By $22,000, Doesn't Notice

ZHENGZHOU CITY (CBSDFW.COM) -- The owner of a small food stand in central China's Zhengzhou City refunded more than 140,000 yuan -- or about $22 thousand -- to a customer who accidentally paid a lot more than the cost of two steamed buns.

The customer, Han Hongwei, was using the popular digital payment app Alipay on April 2 to pay for his two, soup-filled buns, which would normally cost around three yuan -- or 50 cents -- but instead he typed in the wrong amount. A month after the online transaction was completed, Han had not even realized his mistake.

During his monthly accounting, the store owner, He Liuzhu, was surprised to find out that his revenue was seven times higher than normal and he traced the source of the discrepancy to a customer with the name Hongwei.

"Many people were buying baozi and I wasn't paying attention. Seeing the payment completed, I didn't take notice of the figure. When I checked the account at the end of the month, I thought it was 14,000 yuan. But when I withdrew it, I found it was more than 140,000 yuan," said He.

He tried to get in contact with Han, but failed. After asking for the media's help to find the careless customer, Alipay service staff contacted Han and disclosed the mistake to him.

Han later said he was in a rush and also taking care of a child while buying the buns, so he accidentally typed his password instead of the actual payment amount. After the local police station confirmed Han's identity, the shop refunded the money.

"The transfer record and time correspond on the Alipay app in their mobile phones. Mr. Han had authenticated his account using his real name on Alipay. In addition, we asked Han to write a receipt and we will keep it," said Huang Lixiang, a police officer with the Tongtai Road Police Station in Zhengzhou.

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