Yang Lifei/ Shanghai Daily news

A housemaid in Chongqing Municipality has won 6.75 million yuan (US$964,286) on the lottery. But her employer must be kicking himself—he had picked the winning numbers.

The winner, surnamed Zhang, quit her job but is now agonising over whether to share her wealth with her employer, the Chongqing Economic Times reported.

Zhang worked as a domestic helper in Chongqing's Shapingba District earning 700 yuan a month.

On Monday, her employer gave her 8 yuan and four sets of numbers and asked Zhang to buy four lottery tickets for him.

But when Zhang was on her way to the agency, he called to say he was feeling unwell and to buy medicine instead.

Zhang found a drug store and had bought some medicine for about 6 yuan when she noticed that the store also sold lottery tickets.

"My employer had studied the numbers for a long time so they must have meant something," Zhang said. "I showed the paper with the numbers on it to the clerk and bought four tickets with my own 8 yuan."

The next day Zhang was passing the store again heading for a wet market.

"Crowds of people were there celebrating the winning prize of 6.75 million yuan," Zhang said.

"I did not know how to check the numbers and I didn't think I had won but I took my tickets out and gave them to the clerk to check."

When told she was the winner, Zhang froze, then clutched the tickets to her chest and ran off, according to one bystander.

Zhang told the newspaper that she had not decided how to spend the money.

"If my former employer meets with difficulty, I will certainly consider offering help in some way," she said.

Legal experts said the employer's right to the winnings had been canceled when he told Zhang not to buy the lottery tickets.

"At any rate the 8 yuan spent on the tickets was Zhang's," said one legal expert, according to the report. "In law Zhang can choose not to share her wealth."