A customer accused a gold-cleaning shop of cheating him after learning that 7.13 grams of the precious metal had disappeared from a necklace of his after a wash, reports qianlong.com, a website supported by major Beijing newspapers.

Huang reported the incident to the bureau of industry and commerce, saying the shop at a market in the Fengtai District "stole" his gold in front of his face.

The bureau officers confiscated the cleansing liquid, which had been used for several washings, and found it contained 18.45 grams of dissolved gold.

The shop's owners can extract the gold from the liquid and sell it, experts said.

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