By Tim Binnall
After winning a whopping $30 million in the lottery, a lucky man in China collected the sizeable prize while wearing a mascot costume so that his family would not find out about the fortune. According to a press release from the Guangxi Welfare Lottery, the mysterious individual known only as 'Mr. Li' had been playing for over a decade, but only won a handful of dollars until late last month when he finally hit it big. Remarkably, the man actually slept through the life-changing moment when the winning numbers were drawn and only realized his good fortune when he checked his ticket the following morning. It was then that he came up with a rather clever plan to ensure that his family would not be forever altered by this fortuitous turn of events.
Li journeyed to the city of Nanning, where the lottery is headquartered, and hid out in a hotel for a few days, never straying far for fear that he might somehow lose his ticket. When he finally arrived at the gaming office to collect the prize, he was presented with something of a problem as, similar to how the lottery is conducted in many states here in America, he was expected to meet with the media to talk about winning the enormous jackpot. In response to this predicament, Li somehow acquired a Guangxi Welfare Lottery mascot costume and wore the colorful getup on stage when he was handed the oversized check in front of reporters.
Pressed for an explanation for his unusual attire, the man revealed that his wife and children had no idea that he had won "because I was afraid that they might feel superior to other people and will not work or study hard in future." Incredibly, he has managed to keep his good fortune a secret from them ever since the press conference, although one imagines that many families who have loved ones that play the lottery are now beginning to eye them with a certain amount of suspicion. While he may not be sharing the jackpot with his wife and children just yet, Li did pay if forward by donating a chunk of his winnings to a charity in China and, after taxes, ultimately took home around $24 million.