A pair of penniless down and outs about to inherit a share of a 4 billion GBP fortune have been celebarting their success with hundreds of new found friends since a bizarre twist in family fortunes.
Brothers Zsolt and Geza Peladi were so poor until last month that they lived in a cave outside Budapest, Hungary, and sold scrap they found on the street for pennies.
But now they and a sister who lives in America are are to inherit their grandmother's massive fortune after a life of poverty.
The pair will travel to Germany on Monday (Dec 14th) after finalising their paperwork confirming their identity.
Geza, 43, said they were to travel to Baden Wurtenberg and added: "I think in three days it will be confirmed that we are very rich.
"It's an old saying that money breeds money, but I never knew how true it was. We haven't even had any of the inheritance money yet and already people are lining up to give us more.
"I have been given a room of my own in the homeless shelter - with my own bed - where its warm which is great this time of year. So many people are being so nice to me - everywhere I go - and not RTL in Germany have signed a contract to cover the story and paid us a fortune."
The pair are believed to be using the cash to help push the legal paperwork through and will journey to Germany next week to finalise their claim. Geza said in an interview with a local Hungarian journalist: "To be honest I am not allowed to say any more - I can't talk about my family, how I feel, nothing. It's all in the contract."
In the two clips shot on a mobile phone in the homeless shelter Geza added that his brother was not so pleased about all their new friends. He said: "He hates crowds - but when we wanted to go back to our cave there were TV crews everywhere. He has found somewhere else and told me not to say - and I accepted the offer of a room here - this time round it's a room all to myself. It's great - before there was not always space in winter and often I would share a dormitory but not now."
A spokesman for RTL in Hungary, when called on the mobile from the shelter confirmed that the brothers were on an exclusive contract and refused to allow any interview.
Geza, who struggled to work the brand new phone that he has been given to stay in contact withg his advisors, added after making the call that there was little more he could say, adding: "My agent says RTL have done a deal for the story all over, ITN, NBC, CBS and other television stations. We really can't say more."
The brothers agent, Zoltan Hujder, also refused to comment when contacted directly. When asked if the amount reported was correct he would only say: "It is more than an average Hungarian can imagine. More than all of the people they know put together will ever have."
Geza had earlier admitted: "We knew our mother came from a wealthy family but she was a difficult person and severed ties with them, and then later abandoned us and we lost touch with her and our father until she eventually died."
They learned of their good fortune after homelessness charity workers in Hungary were contacted by lawyers handling the estate of the brothers' maternal grandmother who died recently in Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany.
Under German law direct descendents are automatically entitled to a share of any estate - that would pass from the boy's dead mother to them.
Geza added: "If this all works out it will certainly make up for the life we have had until now - all we really had was each other - no women would look at us living in a cave. But with money maybe we can find a partner - and finally have a normal life. We don't know yet if she even told our grandmother about us – I understand it was only while they were carrying out genealogical research that lawyers found we existed."
The grandmother's name was not revealed to prevent fraudsters trying to cash in on the inheritance and Geza said the deal with RTL prevented them revealing any more. But a spokesman for the legal firm said: "We know who we need to speak to and that is the two brothers who we are pretty sure are the grandchildren - there is no need for anyone else to be informed."
Last month, a student from Moldova inherited nearly a billion euros from a long-lost relative. Sergey Sudev was left the fortune by an uncle he had not seen for 10 years.
Despite his new wealthy status, Mr Sudev intends to complete his journalism studies.
Normally the only way people of modest means come into a sudden fortune in Europe is through the lottery. Earlier this month, a group of call centre workers and a married couple jointly won Britain’s largest ever lottery prize of £91 million.
