A curious incident recently took place in India, where bewildered officials at Delhi International Airport have searched and confiscated a pouch from a passenger on his way to Mumbai, which what they initially thought contained human excreta.

A male traveller was passing through from Dubai in the early hours of the morning, when security stopped him after the metal detector beeped while the man was searched.

"During frisking, a sub-inspector from the CISF detected something under the passenger's pants as the metal detector beeped. The man was asked to step aside and cooperate with the officers for a detailed check. On manual checking, we found a pouch tied below the man's waist with a masking tape," an airport official was reported to comment.

What the officials found was a bag containing a dark yellow paste, which was taken by security as human faeces. In fact, the discovery was with 630grams (1lb 6oz) and $20,871 (£16,536) worth of gold paste, which the passenger allegedly tried to smuggle.

#CISF nabbed a passenger with gold in paste form,weighing about 630 gms concealed under the waist line of jeans @ IGI Airport, New Delhi. Passenger was handed over to customs officials pic.twitter.com/TZDTNQcoXz — CISF@India (@CISFHQrs) December 11, 2018​

The Central Industrial Security Force had to confiscate the paste. However, because its worth was less than the allowed limit — over $27,000 (£22,000) — for precious metals being taken into India, the authorities didn't arrest the passenger.

According to a reported comment by a customs officer, "If he [the passenger] pays the duty and penalty, the seized gold will be released on the spot."