Residents of Hosur in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district were recently forced to learn a valuable lesson — All that glitters is not gold. On Friday evening, close to 4 pm, residents who were passing by Bagalur-Sarjapur road, suddenly noticed some coins glittering on the muddy sides off the main path. On immediate examination, they believed that they had found gold coins with various prints on it, and some shaped like a dome. The coins were no bigger than a shirt button but residents kept digging and managed to unearth at least 40 such coins.
Soon word spread that a 'hidden treasure' had been found in Bagalur, and reportedly, nearly 200 residents came rushing to the area and began digging. Children, middle-aged and elderly people were all engaged in the activity on Saturday and the news soon reached the local revenue officials as well as the police.
"The Tahsildar and Bagalur police inspector immediately inspected the site. On further investigation, it was found that the metal coins that the residents were collecting were not gold as they claimed. It was just a thin covering of gold and not even 10% of that button-sized object was actual gold," a police official from the Bagalur station told TNM.
"Once we got there, we asked people to disperse because it was causing traffic. In addition to this, we had to avoid gatherings due to COVID-19," he added.
The police told the residents that the coins they were collecting are not gold and that they must avoid gathering in the area. When people continued to reach the spot, the local authorities had to take stringent actions. "We cleared the gathering and covered the area with gravel and sand to stop crowding there," said an investigating official.
Watch the video here: