A man was arrested as he attempted to smuggle $580,000 in U.S. banknotes into China on Wednesday.
The man had the cash — much of it in $100 bills — strapped around his legs and in a bag when he was detained crossing from Hong Kong to the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The man, reported only by the surname Chen, told interrogators he was going to use the money to buy a house. When asked why he had not used a bank to transfer the sum, which would have incurred a fee, he said: "I was quite greedy, people are always greedy."
Travelers entering China are generally allowed to carry a maximum of $10,000 in foreign currency.
