Ding Jianying, 36, told Pol Captain Thanin Kanphai, an officer on duty at Pattaya police Station, at 1am that the strangers approached her inside the store on Naklua Soi 18 on Pattaya-Naklua Road.

She said the two asked her to show yuan banknotes, saying they had never seen the Chinese currency. She said she handed her wallet to the two – one suspected to be a Thai and the other a foreigner. They talked to her for a while before handing the wallet back.

Ding said she found 2,000 yuan missing from her wallet when she was about to pay for her purchases.

Thanin said that police would check footage from the store’s CCTV cameras.