Mum thought she'd found drugs in daughter's room. She was so wrong.

Can you guess what these "drugs" really are? Photo / Twitter.com via @acbanks3

It's a discovery any mother would dread: finding a bag of drugs in her teenage daughter's bedroom. But for one mum, what she thought was a stash of an illicit substance turned out to be something very different.

Asked to look for a calculator in her bedroom, US 16-year-old Ashley Banks' mother was distraught when she came across a packet of suspicious-looking pills instead. She immediately sent her daughter an angry text, sparking an exchange that has since gone viral.

Along with an image of the find, she sent a stern message to her daughter: "Ashley Carol I will not have drugs in my house.

"Come home right now. As soon as your dad comes home from California we will discuss your consequences. As for now your grounded and you will not be leaving the house, come home this instant. [sic]"

The hilarious exchange begins between mother and daughter. Photo / Twitter.com via @acbanks3

Finding the situation hilarious, Ashley responded by telling her mother to put the pills in water.

"Mom they arnt drugs lol, [sic]. "Go put them in water."

Following her daughter's request, she watched as the "pills" expanded into coloured foam dinosaur shapes - a popular "magic" toy for children.

Realising she had been mistaken, her mother replied: "Nevermind. You don't have to come home."

Confused, and likely feeling a little embarrassed by her accusations, she sent another message questioning why she had children's toys.

"Why in the Earth would you buy these[sic]? I thought you were 16 not 7?"

What she thought were drugs turned out to be children's toys. Photo / Twitter.com via @acbanks3

Ashley continued to find the whole situation hilarious sharing screenshots of her interaction with her mum on Twitter.

The post has been shared more than 41,000 times.

- nzherald.co.nz