In a serious stroke of luck, a Madhya Pradesh farmer in India became a millionaire overnight on Monday after he dug out a pebble on his land that he leased for only Rs200 (Tk229).
The pebble turned out to be a 14.98 carat diamond worth Rs60 lakh (Tk68.8 lakh).
The 45-year-old farmer, Lakhan Yadav, became a millionaire after finding the precious stone in his 10x10 patch of land that auctioned for Rs60 lakh on Saturday, reports Times of India.
“It has changed my life,” Yadav told TOI.
Yadav found the diamond while he scooped up a handful of earth, stones and pebbles, but found one that looked different. It shone when he rubbed the dust off it. Yadav then took it to the district diamond officer, who confirmed that it was a diamond.
When Times of India asked how he felt becoming a millionaire, a humble Yadav replied: “I will not go for anything big. I am not an educated person and I’ll put the money in a fixed deposit to ensure my four kids get a good education.”
Yadav was recently evicted from Panna National Park when villages were removed.
“I hope to get another diamond. I’ll work on it for a few more months, perhaps get the lease renewed,” he said.
This is not the first incident of a farmer finding diamonds in fields. Earlier in November, a 24-year-old man became a millionaire overnight after unearthing a 6.92-carat diamond, valued at Rs 30 lakh, from a mine in Madhya Pradesh.
The man, Sandeep Yadav, a police service aspirant, had taken the mine on lease from the government after recruitment in the police force was deferred due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown.
Panna, a district in the impoverished Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, is known for its diamond mines.
Earlier, three others had found diamonds from mines over the last two months.