Principled pilferers no more

Pankaj Deo

Pankaj Deo

Recently, when a friend on a visit to Chandigarh got pickpocketed and lost his driver’s licence that was inside the wallet, I asked him to wait for a few days before applying for a duplicate. I was hoping that the licence would arrive by post, just as mine did nearly 30 years ago. But no luck this time. Perhaps morality is on the decline even among our thieves, as among the rest.

Gone are the days of Jagga Daku of undivided Punjab, who looted the rich to help the poor. Pickpockets in the past, too, were not lacking in ethics. Bollywood has made films on such outlaws with a noble streak in their character. Films like Pocket Maar portray noble pickpockets on celluloid.

While travelling by bus from Connaught Place in New Delhi in the 1990s, my pocket was picked during my student days. My wallet did not have much cash, but it had my driver’s licence, which was a smart card. Not many RTOs issued smart card licences those days. I intended to show it off to my friends, who had booklet-type licences, during vacation in my hometown. But my hopes were dashed to the ground.

Pickpocketing is an art of stealth, and those who practice it do so by sleight of hand, so the victims come to know of it when it’s too late. Pickpockets are craftily disguised and can hide in plain sight. They keep an eye on every move of their target to catch them unawares and commit the act mostly in crowded places. Most common victims are those who use public transport.

I realised that I had lost my wallet only when I reached my hostel at JNU. When I narrated the incident in the hostel mess during dinner, a fellow student told me about his own experience that gave me a flicker of hope. His bag, which had his licence, certificates and marksheet, was stolen on the train. However, within a week, a postman delivered an unstamped envelope, for which he charged Re 1, carrying all his documents to his family in his hometown. The thief had audaciously, though only in a cryptic way, put his address, too, on the envelope as ‘Pappu Pocket Maar’, Dildarnagar, UP.

As luck would have it, I received my licence within two days of theft, delivered to me in an unstamped envelope.

So, when a classmate of mine, who was a Korean national, lost his small bag carrying money and most importantly, his passport, I assured him that he might not get his money back, but his passport might reach him soon. This time, too, the thief did not disappoint, and my classmate’s passport arrived intact in the same manner. We see no such thing happening now. Perhaps time has also tainted the morals of our thieves.