A woman appears to have become the richest person in the world overnight, surpassing the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates with her vast wealth - but there’s just one little catch.
Nottingham business owner Sophie Downing was recently gifted a voucher, which she believed to be worth around a tenner, for her local coffee shop, 200 Degrees.
However, when she used the gift card to purchase a matcha latte, which she received as a Christmas pressie, she was absolutely gobsmacked to discover the card’s ‘true’ value.
The gift card didn’t have just £10 on it, but instead, had an astronomical balance of more than £63 quadrillion. You read that right… quadrillion.
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So that's £63,000,000,000,000,000.
To put it into context, Musk is only worth a measly $843.4 billion (£624b), which is more than 100,000 times less than Sophie's riches.
She's worth 22,500 more than the UK economy (around £2.8 trillion), 2,700 more than the GDP of the United States ($31 trillion/£23 trillion), and more than 670 times the total of the world economy.
She is, however, dwarfed by the reported value of the asteroid Psyche, which scientists reckon could be worth £8,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Recalling the moment she first used the gift card, Sophie said: "The guy at the till was really confused. His face was just like 'what?’
"This massive number came up on the till. He said 'I've never seen it before but it's fine for you to keep it.’
"I didn't clock it until he gave me the receipt. I thought 'surely not, that's actually crazy.’"
Unfortunately, though, the 29-year-old can’t use the cash to buy herself a new car, a home or even end world hunger, because the gift card can only be spent on coffee and croissants. Can you even imagine how many brews you would get from that?
Fortunately, the woman, who runs the Secret Sugar Club, a hair removal service, has a sound conscience and after using the card for a second time, and realising the astronomical value remained, she has vowed not to use it again.
"Maybe they have scanned the wrong thing. It looks as though they have scanned the barcode which has turned into the balance," she said.
"I could go in and clear everything off the shelf but I don't want to take the mick. It would be better if it was a different gift card."
Interestingly, the coffee shop have not acknowledged the mistake that has been made with the gift card, so in theory Sophie could do exactly that, but it's always good to see someone using their moral compass.
Emma Rosemurgey