A resourceful man in eastern China filmed himself using a living crayfish tied to a string to pick up his socks that had fallen on the outer side of the window.

The man – not named in local media in Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province – came up with the bizarre yet clever solution after not being able to reach down to grab his socks that fell while drying.

In the video – shared later on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok – it can be seen that the man lives in a high-rise building and it would be near impossible to get to the dropped laundry.

But rather than letting go of the three socks that fell to the outer window sill, he decided to ‘claw’ his way out of the problem.

He grabbed one of the crayfish – apparently purchased for dinner – and tied it to a string, then lowered it towards the sill to pick up the socks.

And it seems the rescue mission proved successful as the man can be seen pulling up the crustacean, which grabbed one of the socks and brought it inside.

The video was posted by the man’s wife, who said in a comment: “The three socks were not caught by the same crayfish.

“When he tried to pick the last sock, the first crayfish was exhausted so my husband went to the kitchen to pick another crayfish to pick it.”

But the creature’s help was apparently not enough to save it from being eaten, as the clip then shows the man and his son eating a bowl of cooked crayfish.

Numerous netizens were amazed by the man’s unusual grasping tool.

Douyin user ‘If I can’ commented: “Sock-catching crayfish, you are definitely the first in the universe to invent this.”

Another user titled ‘dumbass’ jokingly wrote: “Now your crayfish will stink.”