Sunday, March 17, 2019

Why do people give cash gifts in numbers such as 51, 101, and 501?

Especially in India, cash gift is common for a auspicious occasions like weddings, house warming, any pooja etc..

It was few a week after my marriage, my family started uncovering the gifts/envelops received on the wedding day. As usual it started with unwrapping big attractive ones and then last but not the least - cash gift envelops turn(which is still very common in India likewise amazon card in recent times so called Digital World and elsewhere). A polythene cover contained those envelopes was bit heavier when lifted(I mean't expected be lightweight as that was just cash bills/paper) and upon envelops were taken out, there was so many '1 Rupee coins' at the cover bottom! That is where this question raised like why do people add 1 rupee on top of major denomination(s)??

Below are few reasons from individual opinion and google search, but listed in order of how I felt relevance:
1. Usually people would wanted to return +1 of what was received from them as gift(sorry to call this out, but infact logically yes though).
2. Superstitious belief of metal(coin) brings luck, to be given on top of actual denomination.
3. Numerology - should end by odd number.
4. Should be indivisible(especially for newly wedded couple).

Please leave a comment if better reason found, otherwise I believe this may be useful for now.

PS: For the fellow overseas Indian kids, below the 1 rupee INR cash bill if you haven't seen. Perhaps I guess you may or may not get +1 there, at least I didn't see anywhere in US and in fact it was flat/divisible when we(newly married couple) were invited(sorry if you come across this read), received.