Money flies in the air of Dhaka -- it's an age old saying in Bangladesh.

But it was found flowing in a sewer in the country's north-western city of Rajshahi yesterday. In fact, a lot of money, in notes of one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, and various other denominations.

Besides money, prize bonds, numerous documents of bank accounts and welfare funds, and vouchers worth lakhs of taka of Rajshahi Road Transport Group were also found in the sewer. Some of the documents were from 2011.

All of this was found in a sewer that runs along the Rajshahi-Dhaka highway, right outside the boundary wall of the Rajshahi Railway Hospital, located on the east side of the Rajshahi Railway Station, said officials of General Railway Police and Boalia Police Station.

Contacted, Matiul Haque, general secretary of the Rajshahi Road Transport Owners Group, said their staffers threw some old papers into the sewer.

"Those papers were old and rotting in our balcony. Without burning the papers, the staff mistakenly threw them down the drain."

He couldn't say for sure how the money got there though.

From morning to afternoon, more than 50 people were seen kneeling in the sewers and fetching money from the sewer channel, while thousands gathered around the spot.

One Sakib came to the location around 3pm. He said he searched for half-an-hour and found two five-hundred and one hundred taka notes. He said those who came here in the morning found a lot more. A railway security guard said he saw someone gather Tk 10,000 alone, while a child told this correspondent that he found three 20 taka notes.

A woman said she heard from a rickshaw-puller that he got Tk 50,000. "While urinating on the sewer bank, the rickshaw-puller noticed money flowing in the drain," she said. "I came here to see it with my own eyes after hearing it directly from him."

Nibaran Chandra Barman, officer-in-charge of Boalia Police Station, said they have looked into the matter, but did not take any action as the area was out of their jurisdiction.

The railway police avoided the incident too.

OC Shah Kamal of railway police said since the location of the sewer is outside the railway boundary, they took no action in spite of being informed of it.

Even though he is not certain, Road Transport Owners Group's Matiul referred to an old incident and said the money might have something to do with it.

Three years ago, Bipul, an employee of the organisation, lost about Tk 2.5 lakh belonging to a bus owner. He kept the money inside his desk drawer at the group's office, but later said he couldn't find it.

Bipul is still repaying the lost money to the bus owner from his salary. The group has also given him a grant of Tk 1 lakh to complete the repayment. But whereabouts of the lost money remained unknown, he added.

"We think that the person who took the money hid it in the pile of paper. But our office was under CCTV camera network and no one dared to go there, get the money, and get out. When the papers were dumped in the drain, the money might have gone along with them," said Matiul.

However, Matiul said the total money collected by locals would not be more than Tk 3,000.