PARIS: Two penniless brothers who live in a cave outside Budapest are to inherit most of a reported £4 billion ($7 billion) after an astonishing twist in their family fortunes.

Zsolt and Geza Peladi have no fixed address and eke out an existence by selling junk they find in the street. But their scavenging days are about to be over. The brothers have been informed they are entitled to their long-lost grandmother's fortune, along with a sister who lives in America.

Zsolt and Geza Peladi ... suddenly found themselves very rich.

Charity workers in Hungary broke the news to them after being contacted by lawyers handling the estate of their maternal grandmother who died recently in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

''We knew our mother came from a wealthy family but she was a difficult person and severed ties with them, and then later abandoned us and we lost touch with her and our father until she eventually died,'' Geza Peladi, 43, told ATV television.