Foolish or wise? Farmer’s wife refuses ₹10 crore deposited in her bank by mistake: We asked AI if it was the right call

A woman from a farmer’s family in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, has become the talk of her district and much of social media. She found a staggering sum of money in her bank account and chose not to touch it.

Rita, whose husband Parasbhan Baheliya works as a farmer in Devganj village, went to her local Bank of India branch. It was during the Navratri festival, and she wanted to make a routine withdrawal.

The branch was shut that day. She walked to a nearby ATM instead. And, what she saw on the screen stopped her cold. Her account showed a balance of almost ₹10 crore.

Suspecting something was wrong, she went to a second ATM to confirm the figure. It showed the same number. She pulled out her phone and filmed the screen.

What happened next is what set her apart. Rita went home and told her family in clear terms: nobody was to withdraw a single rupee. The money was not theirs to touch until someone could explain where it had come from.

The family later went to the bank to flag the issue, only to find it closed for a public holiday. The branch manager, Rishikant Pandey, subsequently told reporters that the most probable cause was a technical glitch or a processing error. He said that a full inquiry would follow once the branch was back in operation.

Was she right to refuse the money?

We asked AI to judge if Rita did the right thing by refusing the money. Here’s how artificial intelligence responded:

Google Gemini says Rita's decision to leave the ₹10 crore untouched was not just honest, it was legally and financially the smartest thing she could have done.

Under the Indian Contract Act, money credited to an account by mistake must be returned. Spending it can attract criminal charges for dishonest misappropriation under Indian law. The Income Tax Department's systems automatically flag unexplained credits of this size.

Without proof of the source, the account holder can face penalties of up to 78% of the amount. The bank also retains the legal right to recover the funds, with interest, regardless of whether the funds have been spent.

By reporting the error immediately and creating a clear record of her actions, Rita protected herself from a legal and financial ordeal that could have taken years to resolve, says Google Gemini.

ChatGPT completely agreed on this and wrote, “Her decision was legally sound, financially protective, reputationally safe, and technically secure. Most people think morality drove this. I would argue something sharper. She protected herself from a system that assumes guilt first and asks questions later.”

Even Grok AI produced a similar response. Across all lenses, keeping or using the money would have exposed Rita to civil recovery, possible criminal proceedings, crippling tax demands, account freezes, regulatory blacklisting, and scam exploitation, it said.

“Reporting it cost her nothing and protected everything. This was not just morally right—it was the only decision that kept her family safe in India's legal, tax, and digital-banking ecosystem,” Grok AI wrote.