Six thieves were arrested by police for stealing marathon medals. The reason why they stole the medals was that they thought marathon medals were made of gold and were valuable.
The medals were originally intended to be awarded to marathon runners who completed the race. Not only did they not contain gold, but their value was very low. The 620 medals recovered were worth 138,000 rupees, or approximately RMB 11,800, with the average value of each medal being about RMB 19. Even Olympic gold medals are not always made of pure gold.