Taipei - A university student found 100,000 Taiwan dollars (3,000 US dollars) lying on the ground, prompting about 50 people to claim they had lost it, a newspaper reported Wednesday. 

Hsieh Chia-yin found the bag of money Monday in Taichung in central Taiwan and waited for 10 minutes at the location, hoping the owner would turn up so she could return the cash, the Liberty Times reported. 

When no one came, she took the money to a police station. 

After newspapers reported Hsieh had turned in the money, about 50 people phoned the police station, claiming they had lost the cash. 

The callers correctly described where they had lost the money because press reports had mentioned it, but when police asked them from which bank they had withdrawn the new bills and asked them to show police their chequebooks to prove they had withdraw 100,000 Taiwan dollars, they all hung up, the newspaper said. 

Taichung police said they would keep the money for six months. If its owner does not claim it, Hsieh would be eligible to keep the money, according to Taiwan law. (dpa)