Funeral worker earns S$2,300 from selling gold collected from cremated ashes
Recently, a funeral worker in Thailand went viral for selling gold collected from corpses’ teeth, earning him 59,371 baht (S$2,300) in the process.
Late last month, a gold shop’s owner in Saraburi Province shared a 7-minute video of an elderly man bringing pieces of gold to pawn at the shop.
The man, a long-serving undertaker, told the shop owner, Mr Namo, that he and his colleagues had gathered the gold pieces throughout the many years they worked at the graveyard.
Source: @namobanchangtongdaengso0 on TikTok
The elderly man said he was keen on selling the gold pieces, but was unsure if they were genuine.
After a thorough examination, Mr Namo confirmed that the gold pieces were authentic.
He then combined and melted the fragments into a bar weighing 21.13g, valued at S$2,300.
Gold was given by the deceased’s families
The undertaker shared that he worked at a burial site commonly used by Thai-Chinese families. He claimed that many of the deceased were buried with their gold teeth intact as their families chose not to remove them.
Source: @namobanchangtongdaengso0 on TikTok
In some cases, the deceased’s families decided to cremate their loved ones years after burial. After the cremation, the remains would include ashes, fragments of bones, and at times, traces of gold.
Since most families no longer keep the gold, they would leave it with the undertakers, according to the Thaiger.
He assured Mr Namo that he had obtained all the gold legally, with the families’ full awareness and permission.
The undertaker also told Mr Namo that parts of the proceeds will go towards making merit in honour of the deceased.
Also read: 3 friends find S$500K Hunt The Mouse gold coin under a bench in Bedok Central
3 friends find S$500K Hunt The Mouse gold coin under a bench in Bedok Central
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Featured image adapted from Sqkii on @namobanchangtongdaengso0 on TikTok.
