Four sanitation workers in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province, look for a college enrolment letter that a youngster lost in a trash dump. Photo: Screenshot of a video posted by Xiandaikuaibao

A careless youngster in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province, was lucky to find his lost college enrolment letter in a trash dump thanks to four kind-hearted sanitation workers, reported Guancha.com on Monday.

It took two hours for them to sift through more than eight tons of garbage at a trash-transfer station before the youngster was reunited with his college enrolment letter that he had thrown away by mistake.

The youngster, surnamed Sun, accidentally mixed up his just-received enrolment letter with other personal documents that he threw into a trash bin on Thursday.

By the time he realized his mistake, the documents had been picked up by garbage collectors and were mixed with eight tons of waste in a collection truck.

The sanitation workers refused to take any money after finding the letter.

Some Chinese netizens criticized Sun for his careless behavior after the incident was reported by media.

"It was a waste of time and labor. He should have been more careful with important documents like this," read one comment on the internet.

Other netizens said he could have simply contacted the college admission office to issue a new one instead of sifting through all that junk.