The Unusual Suspect

She looked distraught while chatting. She was tense and was worrying so much as if her complete world had split into pieces. So I thought it was my Dharma to call her to find the trouble. As a nice citizen, I dialed her number.

Me: Hi, what has happened?

Her: Oh nothing, I am a little tensed.

Me: Why so?

Her: Someone has stolen my and my friend’s purse.

I thought ‘that’s it’ but I did not have courage to utter these words so bluntly. So I continued.

Me: Oh I am sorry, what has happened? Where did it happen? How much money did he steal?

Her: It was stolen from the office when I was having my lunch. Our drawers were open but no one was there when we went for lunch. It contained almost 2000 INR.

So much drama for 2000 INR, what the heck, but you cannot show your rude emotions while talking to girls.

Me: yar, this amount is not even good enough to take so much tension.

Her: Mr, It is almost 25% of my salary. So it is a huge amount for me.

Me: Okay then, why don't you go to the management and ask them to catch the culprits?

Her: It will not help and I do not want to ruin their lives.

Me: Are you mad?

Her: Why?

Me: You must take some action to catch the thieves so that they will be discouraged and they will not even think of repeating this in future. Your silence will provide them the courage to repeat this again.

Her: But management will fire them.

Me: Culprits must be punished.

Her: Okay, I will try something.

The discussion was over with her commitment though I was convinced that she would not do anything except sitting idle and hoping for a miracle to happen assuming "Someday someone would face the heat for their acts". Days passed so as weeks. It was almost a month when we talked last time and I almost forgotten the incident.

One day on chat she announced she almost found the culprit and would get her money back soon but she would not take any action once she gets her money back. I was curious and stunned. So I called her right away to know the details. I was sure the culprit must be a housekeeping personnel who does not get enough wages for survival.

Me: So how was the journey? What did you do?

Her: I went to HR to find out the Cash Card Numbers so that I can track them further.

Me: What are you talking? What cash cards?

Her: Arre, this person did not take any money from my purse. He took the cash cards which I got during some events conducted in my office.

Me: What the heck? You were so tense for gifted money.

Her: Yes, is there a problem? Do you want to listen or not?

I made faces as she would not see them but to calm her down I continued.

Me: Okay madam, go on.

Her: Once I got Card number from HR, then I thought to visit the stores which accept such cards. Luckily number of stores was less. First I went to Pantaloon and told them the complete situation and asked them if someone had used the card (with exact card number) there. I repeated this same stuff in 10 more stores with no luck. 12^th store in the list was Life Style. I thought to try my luck there as well. So I went there and repeated my story 12^th time. After completing the story I requested them to check their Database if someone had used those cards. It was quite a tough task to convince these store people to provide me such information. All of them resisted but a few checked and looked into their database. At Lifestyle it was easier to convince the people and found this information. They searched in the database and found the entry. Ladies stuff was bought using the cards and cards were signed by my senior person. I got the details of the shopping. Though I was not still convinced that my senior had stolen the cards and used them here but I had proofs. I looked at the list of items and remembered these items were purchased by my colleague, who sits next to my desk, and showed it to me 2 days after the theft.

Me: He He He, She showed those items to you.

Her: Yes, She did. I asked my senior if he had shopped from lifestyle in near past and as per my expectations he denied. I was sure who has taken the money. She who had stolen the money before going home. This is the same lady who was crying about losing her wallet when I told her about the theft. I called her and asked her. She denied again and again but I was sure. She told me "Sir had given her the cards and she had given him the equivalent money". I had reasons to invalidate her reasons on the spot. I told her, that I have reached the police and lodged a complaint against her. But she was still persistent in her denial. Now I am waiting for her to come back to office and then only I would be able to get my money back…

Me: Awesome!!!! Great work.

After few more days she pinged and told that the thief would come in couple of days.

This complete story is not all about the money that she had lost or she will recover. But it is more about the fight she had put to find the culprit and blacken her face.

I do not know the way to eradicate such activities from society but finding such culprits and showcasing their acts to others can help all of us. Along with that it will change the notion regarding people with lesser wages (As in my case I was sure that this some housekeeping person has stolen the purse.). My friend's work was appreciable and such incidents must inspire all of us to not sit back in such cases but instead we must take some actions to find the guilty and bring them to justice.