A copy of Antiquities of Athens has been returned to Kiama Library in Australia roughly 150 years after it was apparently borrowed.
A local resident brought the book in after finding it during home renovations in a tea chest concealed inside a sealed fireplace.
The volume was published in 1858 and appears to have gone missing within several years of the library's opening in 1872, library manager Michelle Hudson said.
Hudson said it was number 506 in the library's early collection of about 1,000 books.
Hudson estimated that applying the printed weekly late fee of three pence and adjusting for inflation would produce a figure of about A$28,000, or 1.87 million Indian rupees.
The calculation is based on historical rules and is an estimate; the evidence does not show that a fee has been imposed on any person.
The identity of the borrower is unknown because lending registers from the 1870s have been lost, while the book itself carries no information identifying its last reader.
Hudson said the library had not previously received a returned book of comparable age.
Its former rules required borrowers to return earlier books and settle outstanding amounts before taking another book, and limited eligible households to three loans.
The book sustained damage after spending years by the chimney, including exposure to water.
The library intends to retain it for display in its local-history collection rather than lend it out again.