LEEDS, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Employees at a British hotel said they were ecstatic to receive a $25 billion tip -- until they discovered the money was Zimbabwean and worthless in Britain.

Clare Vidler, duty manager at the Metropole Hotel in Leeds, England, said a group left 25 billion-dollar notes for hotel staff before embarking on their trip back to Zimbabwe, where inflation is 231 million percent, The Sun reported Wednesday.


"We thought we'd won the jackpot and imagined how we'd spend it. Then we realized it wouldn't even buy a penny chew," hotel worker Deborah Heather told The Sun.