Family finds £28, 000 in new home – then returns it

A man in Utah discovered $45,000 (£28,000) stuffed into tins and boxes in the attic of the new home he had just bought – and gave the money back to the previous owner's six children.

Josh Ferrin was exploring the house he had just bought when he made the discovery.

"I freaked out, locked it my car, and called my wife to tell her she wouldn't believe what I had found," said Mr Ferrin, who works as an artist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.

Along with his wife and children, they spread out thousands of notes on a table, separating the bundles one by one.

They stopped counting at $40,000.

Despite being tempted to keep the money to help him pay for mounting bills and broken down car, Mr Ferrin sought out the children of the home's previous owner, who had died, and gave them the money.

"I'm not perfect, and I wish I could say there was never any doubt in my mind.

We knew we had to give it back, but it doesn't mean I didn't think about our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren't able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought," he said.

"But the money wasn't ours to keep and I don't believe you get a chance very often to do something radically honest, to do something ridiculously awesome for someone else and that is a lesson I hope to teach to my children."