That old nugget of wisdom appeared to hold true yesterday at the Lo Wu checkpoint, where an old lady was busted for trying to smuggle HK$1.9 million into Hong Kong in a rather novel way. She had stuffed all the money inside some 'root' vegetables she was carrying - namely, some large taro. Here is the article from the Shenzhen Daily:

A woman from Hong Kong had been caught smuggling about HK$2.2 million (US$283,100), of which HK$1.9 million was stuffed in taros, customs officials announced Friday. The seizure was the largest currency smuggling case detected at Luohu Checkpoint this year, Shenzhen and Hong Kong newspapers reported. The 60-year-old women, identified as a housewife surnamed Chan, was crossing the border into Hong Kong at 11:45 p.m. Thursday, 15 minutes before the checkpoint closed, when she was asked to open her trolley bag and handbag, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily and South China Morning Post reported.

An X-ray found an undeclared HK$12,500 in her handbag. When customs officers further questioned the woman, she became nervous and raised suspicions. A closer look at the X-ray found seven taros that looked suspicious. Officers cut open the taros to find HK$1.9 million in rolls of banknotes. The officers then found 18 rolls of banknotes amounting to HK$275,000 in the aluminum handle of the women’s luggage bag. She said the money was hers and had been kept on the mainland for some time.