A TODDLER took 9,300 yuan (US$1,309) in cash from her mother's handbag and threw from their 17th-floor home in Dongmen last week while her mother was sleeping.

When the mother, surnamed Huang, woke after her noon nap she said she was dumbfounded to find the money missing. She asked her 3-year-old daughter, Ting Ting, what had happened.

"I asked my daughter where the money was and she said she did not know," Huang said.

Shop owners near the Hongji Building, where the family lives, in the Dongmen commercial area confirmed it had "rained money" at midday April 5, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

"Lots of people fought for the notes," a businessman who refused to be named said. "I saw a security guard who looked like he had won a prize after finding 600 yuan."

Huang said she found two 100-yuan bank notes on the window sill.

"Looking out of the window, I found two other notes on the window sill of the floor below."

The neighbor downstairs did not answer when she knocked at the door, she said.

Huang said she cried all day for the lost money, which included 5,500 yuan home rent and 4,000 yuan takings from her clothing store.

Ting Ting's father, surnamed Yu, said the money could have supported his family of three for three months.

He regretted not teaching his daughter basic knowledge about bank notes.

"She can't even recognize a 100-yuan note," he said. "She can only tell coins."

Ting Ting had a weakness for throwing objects downstairs, the father said.

"She has thrown mirrors and combs downstairs before."

He installed wire screens on the windows of two rooms after the incident, the report said.

The father hoped people of conscience would return the money they picked up.

(Mu Zi)