Japanese police on Thursday returned 5 million yen ($42,200) to a man whose wife accidentally threw it out with the trash, a news report said.
The man lost the money in early March when his wife threw out the envelope in which he had hidden the cash, Kyodo News agency said.
The man had been hiding the envelope — which he had wrapped in a trash bag — in a garbage can, Kyodo said.
"I had been moving the cash around and hiding it in various places so it couldn't be stolen by robbers," Kyodo quoted the unidentified 35-year-old man in Saitama prefecture as saying.
His wife, unaware that the money was in the garbage can, threw it out along with the rest of the trash, the report said.
In late March, the man saw news reports that a sanitation worker had found the cash at a garbage facility and filed a report with police, it said. Police confirmed he was the owner from banking and other details on the envelope, it said.
A Saitama police spokesman who identified himself only by the surname Takeuchi confirmed the cash had been returned but declined to provide any details.
Saitama is 14 miles north of Tokyo.