PodcastLottery winner burns ticket worth 20,000 lira: 'It's sinful money'
The winner of a 20,000-lira lottery consolation prize burned his ticket because it was "sinful money." The minimum wage worker said he bought the ticket because his child wanted him to and that he didn't "touch the money."
Duvar English
The owner of a winning lottery ticket worth 20,000 lira ($3350) burned the ticket, saying that the money was "sinful."
Esat Şahan, a minimum wage worker in the province of Bursa who bought a lottery ticket upon the insistence of his child, missed the 20 million lira jackpot by one number. However, he did not take the 20,000 lira consolation prize.
"I didn't touch the money because it's sinful money," Şahan said, adding: "I recommend that everyone who buys lottery tickets should stop. Don't let sin into your home."
Şahan works for minimum wage at a furniture store and his boss was the one who gave him the idea to burn the ticket.
"I told him, 'We should just burn the ticket so you can be rid of this business,'" said Hüseyin Çakır, adding that he will grant Şahan an extra month's salary as a bonus for "burning the sinful 20,000 liras."