Japan tsunami: 10m yen donation found in Tokyo toilet Published duration 29 September 2011

image caption Thousands of people were left homeless by March's tsunami and earthquake

An anonymous donor in Japan has left 10m yen ($131,000; £83,000) to charity by dumping it in a public toilet.

The money was found with a letter saying it should be donated to victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March.

The neatly wrapped bills were found in a plastic shopping bag in a toilet for disabled people in the city hall of Sakado in the Tokyo suburbs.

The note read: "I am all alone and have no use for the money."

The City Hall said it would hand the money to the Red Cross if it was not reclaimed within three months.

City officials said the anonymous donor had slipped in and out unnoticed.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the earthquake and tsunami that devastated north-eastern coastal areas in March has brought out striking examples of generosity and honesty.

Strange donations

The equivalent of $50m in cash has been picked up in the disaster area and handed over to the police. Another $30m was recovered from safes found in the rubble.

It is not the first time that anonymous benefactors in Japan have chosen toilets to leave cash. In 2007, 400 blank envelopes containing 10,000-yen notes were found in the toilets of local council buildings across the country.

At the same time, 18 residents of a Tokyo apartment building found a total of 1.8m yen stuffed into envelopes in their mailboxes.

Nearby, 1m yen was apparently thrown from an apartment block above a local shop.