A digger showed up at the house in Bogen, near Passau, shortly after the death of the 53-year-old businessman who owned it, broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reported on Tuesday.

As the clods of earth were thrown aside, plastic bags filled with millions of Euros in cash and gold bars were revealed.

Normally, anything found on the property would go to the dead man’s heirs.

But the digger hadn’t been ordered in by his family or executors, but by a 69-year-old man who claimed he had agreed with the deceased to hide his cash under the lawn.

After the death, he became understandably worried over the fate of his hoard and called in the excavator.

Now he must find a way to prove that the gold really does belong to him – or see it handed over to the beneficiaries of his friend’s will.

Until then, the money is in the care of a security company in Regensburg, town mayor Franz Schedlbauer told Bayerische Rundfunk.

Police ordered an autopsy on the dead man and found that there was no foul play in his death.