A trio of boys chasing a snake stumbled upon a cache of 15 bronze Buddhist statues in Kampong Cham’s Kang Meas district on Friday.

The items have since been handed over to local police. The teenage boys had been scrambling around the trees after the snake when they spied in the bushes a red handkerchief, which was wrapped around the statues.

They divided the loot, but the statues were handed over to police when a mother of one of the boys discovered their find.

Kang Meas district deputy police chief Sen Sandy said he reported the findings to the Ministry of Interior, but found they were not the relics stolen from Wat Ounalom earlier this month.