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In-house thieves

I had brought a handful of clips to be used while drying my clothes on the washing lines. Amazingly, I found them dwindling in number within a very short span of use. Since I'm pretty absent-minded, I initially attributed the disappearance to my having carelessly misplaced them. However, it soon dawned upon me that no matter how careless I was, I couldn't have misplaced them all! Yes, all my clips were gone in a few months.

I then bought a new set of clips to replace their lost-and-never-found predecessors. History was to repeat itself all too soon. Sure enough, they started disappearing as well, much to my dismay. But what happened today was a true stunner. I had used 4 clips to dry my clothes. Within 3 hours, all except 1 were stolen! Now just how cheap can people get? I thought thieves had a strict code-of-conduct! They couldn't stoop too low. How wrong I was!

And no, the thief/thieves in question aren't the professional or full-time kind. They're inmates of the building I have the misfortune of residing in. It's really frustrating when perfectly normal and non-deprived people take to stealing even such trivial things for petty gains...if at all they qualify for gains.

I remember V.S.Naipaul saying something to the effect of luggage being an endangered species in India. I would corroborate. I've seen how people travelling via train diligently fortify their luggage. You don't need to be afflicted with chronic paranoia to keep an ever vigilant watch over your possessions. You just need to be in India!

Comments

saurabh said…
I remember myself stealing mango pickles from neighbour's terrace where they were spread for drying up. I was a kid then and the effort was worth the gain. Further there was no tell tale sign of my misdemeanor once i ate it :) ... but what is this "thief" thinking, using the same stolen clips to spread his own clothes on the same terrace???
Deepanjan said…
What you did is understandable. I used to gobble up everthing ready-to-eat using stealth techniques that remain unparalleled in the history of mankind.

But this moron should be gauged on a completely different set of parameters. I guess he/she will wait for a few days before using the clips. Or he/she could have thought of something more intricate.

My best wishes to the small-timer!
Vivek said…
I've said this before & I'll say it again .... which deprived corner of Bangalore do you live in?
Anonymous said…
Should I get on the case of 'Missing cloth clips'?
Deepanjan...
Deepanjan said…
Viv, the people are deprived of self-esteem. It's as simple as that.

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