As his shock wore off, the 42-year-old teacher called a friend he knew at the bank to inform them of the gravity of the error.

The funds remain “uncleared” and cannot be withdrawn even though the amount remains on Saha’s bank balance.

The government runs the State Bank of India (SBI), whose mantra is “Safe Banking with SBI.”

“We are trying to ascertain what went wrong…We have informed our regional headquarters in Kolkata and national headquarters in Mumbai,” said local branch manager Subhashish Karmakar.

It is an odd fact that Saha’s mistaken bank balance of almost $10 billion is close to India’s entire annual education budget, which is $11.5 billion.

Go figure, or…maybe don’t.