Utterly, nutterly larcenous: Butter, booze, beedis & biscuits are all a steal, literally, during lockdown

In the musical version of Oliver Twist, an unregenerate and light-fingered Fagin sings, “When I see, someone rich,/ Both my thumbs start to itch. /Just to find/ Peace of mind,/ I’ve got to pick a pocket or two./ You’ve got to pick a pocket or two!”

In the time of lockdown, with passersby few and far between and the requirement of social distancing, there are slim pickings for latter-day cutpurses. But where there’s a crooked will, there’s always a way, and break-in artists are diversifying their purloining portfolios by targeting not locked-down homes whose inmates are bound to be in, but shuttered shops purveying all manner of goods.

Perhaps inspired by the exploits of the impish Bal Krishna who would steal the churned milk product from indulgent gopis, a burglar made off with Rs 1,400 worth of butter from a grocery shop in Mumbai’s Borivali.


In Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi, a kitchen-sink drama unfolded when it was discovered that picklocks had decamped with 300 eggs, 6 packets of flour, 4 litres of milk, several packets of biscuits and sundry other items of daily consumption from a kinarawala’s while in Kolkata, a paanwala had his entire stock of cigarettes and beedis lifted by miscreants who obviously hadn’t kicked the habit of smoking, or of stealing.

In Secunderabad, the long arm of the law caught up with two felons who, having carted away crates of assorted liquor, were nabbed in a cautionary tale of lockdown larcenists finding themselves, appropriately, in the lock-up.