Cash-Eating Termites in India

The BBC reports a couple of cases in India where termites in something called "strongrooms" have eaten through enough paper money to bring real tears.   Are things done so much on the humble even in banks in India that some money is not stored in metal vaults?   The article doesn't say, helpfully.

Can you believe that the highly underrated American poet, Stephen Vincent Benet, foresaw this exact situation back in the 1930's, in his poem, "Metropolitan Nightmare."   Its last lines are:

"Oh, they've quit eating wood," he said in a casual voice.
I thought everybody knew that."  And, reaching down,
he pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel.