the rats ate it

C. thought she was being clever.

Zimbabwe's sudden switch to US dollars early this year led to a sudden surge in armed robberies. Supermarkets are being raided, there are now regular bank heists and security companies are finding they've got a new niche. Businesswoman Jane Mutasa lost 20,000 to carjackers. The reason? When the inflation-weakened Zimbabwe dollar was in circulation, it simply wasn't worth any would-be robber going to the trouble of staging a hold-up. It was far more lucrative to "money-burn" - conduct parallel market deals online -- in a downtown Internet cafe.

All that's changed now. So when C. heard an armed gang was operating in her area, she put her savings up in the roof. Intruders always check the safe and under the mattress. "Every time I got a bit of change, I added to it," she said. "20 rand here, 50 rand there." She'd managed to amass 7,000 rand (around 700 US). She lifted her stash down this week, or what was left of it. The rats had got there first.