Boy slices up mum's gold necklace worth Dh4000 and gifts it to classmates

An eight-year-old in Zaozhuang, Shandong, China, decided to take generosity to a 'literal gold level', as social media says. The boy chopped up his mother’s marriage-gift necklace and handed the pieces out to classmates, sparking a storm of disbelief and amusement online.

The mischief went undetected for a month. “Maybe you think it is a funny fabricated tale, but it is true,” said his mother, Sun, on social media on November 28, after learning about the stunt from her daughter.

As reported by Dianshi News, after a tip from a classmate, Sun and her husband dug through household surveillance footage. The video revealed the boy opening Sun’s drawer, pliers in one hand, lighter in the other, attempting to melt the 8-gram necklace—eventually resorting to biting it into pieces. Only a tiny fraction of the gold could be recovered.

When asked if he knew how expensive gold was, the boy shrugged. His father’s response? A swift punishment, though legal experts noted that under China’s Juvenile Protection Law, children above eight have limited civil capacity and corporal punishment violates the rules, as quoted by South China Morning Post.

With gold trading at roughly 1,200 yuan (US$170) per gram, the 8-gram necklace was worth about 9,600 yuan ($1,360), which comes to roughly Dh4,000.

The boy may have lost a necklace, but he definitely gained viral fame—and a lesson in why DIY goldwork is probably best left to professionals.