Thievery in the boys hostels raises hackles

September Issue. Boys Hostels.

Boys from all the years and across several hostels have been reported cases of missing illegally smuggled food from their lockers. It has been reported that only the food items, which are banned to be imported into the school premises according to the rules set by the school diary, have disappeared, and all the other belongings, including some pretty expensive electronics, have gone untouched.

"I had brought some ghee from my village, so I could eat it with lunch. I really hate the lunch food, the dal is often burned and the rice is too harsh, I was losing a lot of weight because of lack of proper nutrition. My parents suggested I use the natural animal fat made in my village to improve my appetite. I had been using it for a few weeks, and my lunch appetite had really improved and my mood during the day was better in recent weeks. It was a great thing for me, and I told a few of my friends about it, but it is unlikely it was common request because they are trustworthy friends. However, one day I go in to retrieve the box so I can transfer it to a small container to take it to the dining halls, and I find that it is missing. I asked my cubicle mates, and my friends, and none of them were able to provide any useful information. I checked around, and I heard that a few boys had also found food stuffs from their lockers missing. It's unfortunate we cannot report to the authorities, as doing so will just bring the troubles upon us, since they'll tell us we're not supposed to bring it", said a boy from 9th grade under condition of anonymity, due to his fear of being persecuted by the school administration.

At least a dozen other boys have come to the reporter freely talking about the missing food items from their lockers. One student, from the tenth grade, said he had a large collection of chocolates send by his aunt in Australia inside his locker, but they were missing all of a sudden one day. He says he is greatly grieved by the loss of sweets sent with such great love from so far away, and isn't able to focus on his studies or extra-curricular activities because of that. "I'm taking part in an interhouse sporting competition soon, and I feel like my performance is going to be quite lacking due to the emotional distress I'm in. Really hope the perpetrators are discovered and brought to justice, because this sort of bad behavior and thievery should not go punished at all. Who knows what they will be stealing next, and from where?" he said.

All the reported students said that their lockers were not broken into, and no other sign of forced entry was discovered, suggesting the thieves involved could have used master keys. A master key is a specially designed key made by keymakers that can open any lock whatsoever. However, some are contesting the possibility this is the case, and suggesting other nefarious methods may have been used. An unnamed ninth grader said: "I don't think they're using master keys because a friend of mine uses one of those lock combination keys, and his locker was broken into as well, and I have one of those special padlocks, the really thick ones that won't work with just any key, or work with master locks at all, and even i had it taken. I don't know what techniques they are using to break into our lockers, but it should be more advanced than just some special key."

School authorities, when reached out, told the reporter that unless there was formal reports of lost things by students, about objects that were not smuggled outside food, they could not take any action on the matter. "This is the very reason we don't allow anyone to bring in outside food, because students get greedy and break into each others' lockers to steal food. We kindly request the student body to follow the school rules, and communicate with the relevant officials if they are dissatisfied with the food provided in the kitchens, so we can work on something. Circumstances like these put on in a difficult place, because we don't want to be seen as condoning of the bringing of outside foods into school premises," said a representative of the administration, who told the reporter not to mention his name because he was not authorized to speak on the matter and also he didn't want to get involved.

At the time of the publication of this article, the reporter has also had a few of his food items stolen from the locker, and is quite unhappy about that.