A Montana resident was surprised to realise that a $50,000 winning ticket she wanted to throw away was saved by her brother.

Virginia Busko-Gewald explained to Montana Lottery officials that she was motivated by her brother's lottery-playing habit to buy lottery tickets at the Great Falls Albertsons. Even though her brother is a regular player, she couldn’t decide what game to play, so she went for the first lottery game the shop clerk suggested: Powerball.

"It's just fun," Busko-Gewald mentioned. "I don't take it seriously."

After the lottery drawing Wednesday night, Busko-Gewald noticed that she did match five of the winning numbers but didn't realise she was the winner. She almost threw the winning ticket in the rubbish bin, but then suddenly decided to let the brother check it first.

That was when Busko told his sister that she had won $50,000. Virginia couldn't believe that she became a lottery winner. So she kept repeating to herself that it was only $5,000 as she just couldn't believe that it was actually $50,000.

Busko-Gewald added that she intends to pay some bills, pay a visit to her nephew in Korea and also to her niece in New York.