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.

Mystery prevails

I had been waiting for this trip for last 4 years. Everything was planned and things were on time. As per the plans I had to leave office at 5 o’clock, reach home at 5.30 and pack my bag by 6PM and reach the bus stand by 7. I reached home, door was locked, I unlocked it and entered. I started collecting the required things in huge backpack. I kept my clothes, camera (Oh camera was not there, no issues I still had time), more clothes, towel, tooth brush, paste, soap and camera, but my camera was still untraceable. I searched, searched more and searched harder but could not find my camera. So I called my mom.

Me: Camera Choda kya mene? (Did I leave my camera at home?)

Mom: Nahi beta. Kya hua.(No, What happened?)

Me: Kuch Nahi, Mene kahin to rakh diya hai, mil nahi raha hai. (Nothing great, I just misplaced it.)

Mom: Tujhe kisi chis ka bhi dhyan rahta hai, 300$ ka camera tha na. (Can't you keep your things attentively? How costly was it? Was not it 300USD?)

Me: Nahi Mummy, 200$ ka hi tha. (No, it was just 200$)

Mom: 8000 Rs/- Akal nahi hai, 8000 ka nuksan kara diya. Ab to flight se mat ana is bar, train mein hi ana. (Don't you have some mind? It is huge loss of 8K INR. Don't take flight to come home this time.)

Me: Mummy train mein 44 gante lagte hai. Mein nahi aa sakta. (Train takes 44 hours so I can’t afford this much time in train.)

Mom: Mat aa fir. 8000 rs ka nuksan kiya hai tune. (Do not come, it will compensate 8000 INR/-).

Oh man, My mom did not know the actual cost (1000 USD), otherwise It would have been more than one tiring journey of train. 

Nobody came in, nobody went out. All doors were locked and all windows were tightened from inside, then where did my camera go? Everything was in place, my laptop, my computer, my iPad and iPhone were not even touched but my camera worth 5 home trip was not there. Strange, is not it. Things were pointing to a theft. Due to lack of time, I could not investigate much and ran to catch my bus.

I was late again but this time I was only 10 minutes late to reach to bus stand. I inquired about my bus scheduled for 7 PM and I was amazed. My bus had already left, Only God can save India. Indians have stopped using IST(Indian Standard Time - Start at least half an hour late than the schedule time.). This increased the heat of my anger and frustration. I called my mom back and told her about missing the bus.

Me: Bus miss ho gayi (I missed the bus.)

Mummy: Kahan Ja raha tha? (Where were you going?)

Me: Bataya Nahi mene (Din't I tell you?)

Then why am I telling it now? Oh man, face it now. 

Mummy: Nahi (No.)

Me: Ladakh ja raha hun, Himalayas parvat. (I was going to Ladakh.)

My mom's voice was toned down.

Mummy: Himalay kyon beta? (Why are you going to Himalaya, son?)

Oops, what does my mom think about me? Oh man, I should correct her without wasting a single second.

Me: Arre Brimhachari banne nahi ja raha, Ghumne ja raha tha? (Not going to become sage? I was just going for passing some quality time)

Mummy: Acha, thik hai kitne ka nuksan hua? (How much did you lose?)

Me: Jyada nahi. (Not much)

I cut the phone before mummy could increase my period of exile. I searched the whole room, kitchen, hall, second room and house again but could not find the camera. I lost hope of getting my camera back and started living more cautiously. Few of our keys were missing. Though we did not have any idea about the burglar but we assumed someone must have found our keys and used the same key for stealing my camera. To eliminate further attacks all locks were replaced.

After silence for few days, thief hit us again. This time someone stole my Sudexo coupons worth 2200 Rs/-. What an idiot? He did not take anything other than Suxedo coupons. Investigations revealed that one key was lost. I doubted my maid so I fired the old one and hired a new maid. Locks, better and secure, replaced the older ones.

Things were fine for few days. But one day my old Sony phone was not in the drawer and some of my keys was missing for last 2 days. Was the missing key creating the trouble for me? I did not know it. So this time cook was targeted and changed. But there were not any respite from these lifts. More small things were picked without leaving any clues.Approaching Indian police was not a nice idea. Karnataka police was already burdened with Ijjat stealing and heart stealing cases, so burdening them with material stealing case was not appropriate. 

One day my room-mate moved out of the house to some unknown friend's house. He is not in house for last 10 months.

For past 10 months 14 days, Neither any key nor any item went missing from my room. Was it a fear in thief's mind, or was firing the cook/maid or was bringing better quality lock made our life better? We are still not sure about it but I have a request to the thief, please return back my khandani watch gifted to me by my dad at the graduation time otherwise how will I tell my son "Beta yeh mere papa ko unke papa ne graduation clear hone par diya tha".