ROME - An over-diligent cleaner threw out an old mattress stuffed with jewellery and cash to the value of around €50,000 (US$54,000) in the northern Italian city of Montebelluna, German news agency (dpa) quoted the Tribuna di Treviso newspaper report on Monday.
She assumed that the worn mattress could only be junk, removed it from the garage of the owner, an elderly woman, and took it to the municipal dump, failing to realise that the owner had used the mattress to store her cash, jewellery and credit cards.
The owner noticed that the mattress had disappeared hours afterwards.
Her daughter immediately contacted the police, who went to the dump along with local waste disposal officials.
An initial search proved fruitless, but an hour later the mattress was found in a bin, the treasure intact. - BERNAMA-dpa