Bags of old clothes, boxes of books and furniture are typical Salvation Army donations, so volunteers were shocked when they found one donation stuffed with a fortune.

Volunteers at the Rowville Salvos in Melbourne's outer east discovered multiple packages of money when they were sorting through a load of furniture.

The donation had been dropped off on October 30 with staff members pulling out the bundles from their hiding place inside the furniture.

Each package is labelled with a name but so far police have been unable to find out who the owner might be.

"This is a large amount of cash and police would like to locate the rightful owner," Senior Constable Jason Dickinson said in a statement.

Police won't be releasing what kind of furniture was donated or how much money was found at this stage, fearing it would prompt a few too many phone calls from residents who aren't the real owner.

The Salvos find comes two days after an Australian Post employee in Melbourne stumbled upon $100,000 in a parcel that was traced back to a botched ATM delivery.

The postal worker handed the package in to police and was given a handshake and a load of thanks for her honesty.