After making three unsuccessful attempts to pay his telephone bill at the Xian City Commercial Bank, Mr. Yang was finally able to make the payment. However, the receipt issued by the bank staff came as a big surprise: despite having just paid his phone bill, he was still in arrears. Moreover, this amount would be impossible for Mr. Yang to ever repay - he supposedly owed the astronomical sum of 4,503,601,774,848.05 yuan to the telecommunications company. As a result, Mr. Yang has been jokingly referred to by his friends as the "biggest debtor in history."