EAST INDIAN THIEVES.

Kumara Times, Issue 1171, 30 June 1880, Page 3

EAST INDIAN THIEVES.

East Indian thieves are the most expert in the world, The quartermastersergeant of a regiment at an up-station was a very corpulent and heavy man. One night his house was entered by robbers, who not only cleared it of everything portable that was lying about, but absolutely stole the very bed-clothes from under the fat sergeant and his sleeping family, without disturbing one of them. When they woke iu the morning, they were lying on the bare mattresses. This is a common trick with East Indian thieves, aud the way they manage it is this. The robber, before he enters a house or tent, first strips and anoints himself with oil, which is done in order that, in case any person should be awake and seize the intruder, he may be enabled to slip like an eel from his grasp. Thus prepared, he creeps into the dwelling as noiselessly as possible. The nights in India are generally excessively warm and oppressive, and the sleep of most people, although heavy, is uneasy and disturbed. Of this the thief takes advantage. He quietly crouches down close under the bed, and with a feather gently tickles the nose of the sleeper, who, half dozing, rubs it and turns on his couch. While he is doing this the sheet on which he is lying is withdrawn a little from under him by the theif. Wheu he is fast asleep again, a second application of the feather causes another turn, and a little more of the sheet is pulled away. The thief then goes to the other side, and the tickling is continued until the sheet is completely withdrawn from under the unconscious sleeper. The operation takes some time, but is always so nicely managed that there is no case on record of the slumberer having been awakened while the robbery was going forward.