The Unknown Thieves

Complaints at Hotel
Rajesh was a worried man. This was third complaint within a span of
fifteen days. Front Office Manager Sham was reporting the complaints
from guests, one by one. Sham would listen to the complaints and assure
the guests that all efforts would be made to settle their complaints. Sham
had himself tried to crack those issues first. He had made his staff search
the guest rooms thoroughly with their permission. That yielded nothing.
Still, he confidently told the guests that matters would be sorted out very
fast. He then reported the complaints to Rajesh, who was the Human
Relations Manager of the Hotel.
The Hotel Water View
Hotel Water View started its operations in 1952 when Goa was ruled by
the Portuguese. Many VIPs from not only Portugal but various other
countries visited and hence, it was essential to have a decent hotel in the
town.
Mr. Gurudatt Kamat, a wealthy landlord, came up with this idea of starting
a hotel as he saw a huge potential for growth in the Hospitality industry.
The Portuguese Govt. too supported the idea. Mr. Kamat was a pioneer in
the High End Hotel sector in Goa and the hotel enjoyed almost monopoly
in the sector for a long time.
Post liberation, considerable improvements, renovations and expansions
happened. Convention halls were added. There was central air
conditioning of the hotel and increase in the number of suits and rooms.
Water View was a pioneer in introducing the Buffet System. The hotel
further expanded its operations as the time passed. A Chinese restaurant,
A riverside snack bar and pastry shops in Goa were the other sister
concerns of Water View.
Major departments of the hotel included Human Resource, Food and
Beverages, Purchases and Finance. Various Management Institutes
approached Human Resource Department of the hotel to accept their
students as trainees. The hotel always had such trainees besides their
regular staff posted at all the departments. They considered it as their
social obligation to maintain rapport with Academic Institutions. The hotel
also had its Security department consisting of Security Manager, Security
Supervisor and staff. It had two entrances. Main entrance was for
customers and other one was for staff. The security staff would be posted
at both entrances.
Complaints of Missing Items
In spite of this, in the month of October, the guests were reporting thefts
to the Front Office Manager Sham. There was large number of instances
when the guests used to misplace their items in the rooms or forget them
in their taxis etc. Front Office staff was used to this. They would then
search the rooms thoroughly and ask the guests where they had been. But
in this month, this did not seem to be the case. Then, the staff needed to

be queried. It was due to this reason that the matter was reported to HR
Manager Rajesh.
Rajesh was a person with a pleasant disposition and easy to get along. He
had been working for ten years and strived to keep his staff upbeat. His
attitude was further encouraged by the owner of the hotel, Mr. Kamat,
grandson of the founder, who had set the culture of treating his staff like
his extended family. The staff also responded well to these ways. The
attrition rate was lower than industry and many members of the staff had
worked for several years. Hence, the repeated reporting of missing items
was a cause for concern to Rajesh. The guests reporting thefts were quite
respectable. All of them were business tourists. The hotel had a large
customer base of business tourists. This was attributed to the convenient
location. The hotel lacked some facilities like swimming pool, gym etc,
sought by leisure tourists. Hence, the loyal customers were predominantly
business tourists. The items reported missing were small sized items, a
camera, a CD Player, a mobile, a leather pouch and the like. At first, both
managers felt the customer could have lost his item. But when the third
customer reported missing items, Rajesh was shaken.
The Investigation
Nandan told Rajesh that he would look into the matter and instructed him
to do the routine inquiry carefully before taking any other action. Rajesh
then started with his usual inquiry. He trusted his staff. But acting
professionally, he checked their lockers and places where they could keep
such items. He then concentrated on finding out the housekeeping staff
posted for cleaning rooms on those days. He questioned them
exhaustively. He asked the guests about the food and beverages items
ordered by them and found out which staff had served them. He
interrogated them. He also asked the guests whether there were any
other outside visitors like taxi drivers or outsiders coming to meet them.
There were none of these. He also assured the guests that the matter was
receiving his utmost priority. But after all the effort, he still was at sea. To
make matters worse, two more guests reported complaints of similar
items missing. There was an expensive mobile with camera missing and
two VCD players were missing. That made it five reported thefts within a
span of about twenty days. He continued inquiries and reported this to the
General Manager again.
Nandan, then decided that the matter needed to be looked from all
angles. He called for an urgent meeting of the Managers of all the
departments, that were involved, particularly, the Housekeeping, Food
and Beverages and Security. He expressed his concern to Security
Manager about how the items could be taken out of the hotel, in spite of
the physical checking of the staff. He also questioned other managers
whether they had any clues about any of their staff who could be
involved. None of them seemed to know anything, in spite of amicable
relationships within the hotel. Nandan concluded the meeting by making a
fervent appeal to all the managers to be on high alert, to keep their
antennae up day and night to smell anything fishy around the hotel. Our
prestige is at stake and we must find out the culprits, he told them. If
the guests report the thefts to Police, then our name will be flashed

around for all the wrong reasons! And you know Goa is a small place. We
need to be silently vigilant and act really fast. The meeting ended on an
anxious note. Every one of them was restless about having to live with the
unknown thieves.
General Manager takes Charge
Nandan was now tense. He waited in the hotel for extra time, especially
late, as he thought thefts generally happened then. But everything
seemed normal. He went home still tense and returned to the hotel early
next day. He attended to some urgent matters on his table. But the thefts
still loomed large on his mind. He left his plush cabin and decided to stroll
silently around every corner of the hotel, just observing the happenings
around. Just as he moved on the corridors, from floor to floor, he noticed
something unusual. He saw a young boy opening a room with a key and
entering it. Nandan walked towards the room and confronted the boy,
May I know why you entered the room? he asked.
The boy tried to put up a brave front. But the anxiety was obvious. I was
just trying to see whether the room is well maintained, he almost
murmured. Did anyone ask you to do this? Nandan asked again. No,
not now, came the reply, but they had asked me earlier once. Ok, you
get back to your place now, I shall see you later, Nandan replied.
Nandan was astutely aware about the way his staff worked. He sensed
that the boy could be lying. None of his managers or staff would ask a
trainee student to open the room of a guest alone, he thought to himself,
I must look into this carefully.
He knew that there were six boys working as student trainees from a
reputed Institute, at that time in the hotel. The Management considered it
as its social obligation to impart training to the students. There were many
student trainees that had been to the hotel due to its standing. The hotel
used to have trainees for a period of three to six months from illustrious
management institutes. This time too, they had admitted these trainees in
the current month itself. Nandan was more uneasy now that he realized
that the time of their joining corresponded to the sprouting of theft
complaints. This is a delicate matter, he thought to himself, Their
Institute is well known and the Principal is a righteous person, we must
not act in haste.
He called Rajesh to his cabin and narrated what he had seen. Rajesh
seconded his suspicion, but agreed that the matter needed to be handled
tactfully. Nandan often relied on people skills that Rajesh possessed.
How should we handle this now? he asked Rajesh, We need some proof
to take a stand. They discussed what could be done and made a plan.
The Action
We need some proof to take a stand. They discussed what could be
done and made a plan. Rajesh called his trusted assistant Vaman to carry
out the job. Vaman was a soft spoken and friendly person. He was closely
connected with the boys. As a matter of policy, Rajesh had asked in
writing from the boys the place of their residence, while they were in Goa.
Vaman also knew the boys rented residence. Rajesh explained the plan to
Vaman. He agreed to carry it out.

Vaman went to one of the boys who was close to him and asked to take
him to the room where they stayed. The boy hesitated at first. But Vaman
convinced him that things would be bad for everyone if the orders of
managers were not followed. The boy agreed and they walked to the room
along with a security guard. Vaman told him to open the bag of the boy
whom Nandan had seen enter the guests room. They found number of
objects in his bag, similar to those described by the guests as missing.
One by one, Vaman made the boy open all the bags belonging to
everyone. The bags had several electronic items like mobile, cameras and
worse still, had many things from the hotel like linen, cutlery, soaps,
shampoos, even food sachets and bottle openers. The items were taken
to the hotel along with the boy.
At the hotel, Nandan and Rajesh were waiting anxiously. When Vaman
displayed the things to them, they almost breathed a sigh of relief. They
at once called all the boys and queried the one who had entered the room,
where a mobile was earlier reported as missing. The guest had now left.
The boy tried to deny the thefts, but now Nandan threatened of dire
consequences after reporting the matter to the police, because they had
proof. He asked the boy what he had done with the mobiles reported as
stolen as they were not seen. The boy now seemed visibly shaken. He
confessed that he had sold some items. He handed some cash which he
had with him (Rs. 4,970) and said he would show Vaman the shop where
he had sold the other mobiles. The managers decided to let him go on a
scooter with Vaman.
Just as he left with Vaman on his scooter, the boy jumped off and ran with
all his might. His footwear was on the road. Vaman tried to follow him, but
lost track. He came back to the hotel and reported this. It was then they
noticed that the boy had also taken away the cash that he had handed.
The cash had been kept at a counter while talking to him.
The Dilemma- Should we call the Police?
Nandan and Rajesh were stunned. They had not expected this turn of
events. Their relief on finding the thief was short lived and here they were
again discussing how this could be handled now. Looks like we have to
involve the Police Nandan said, We have to go through the whole
ordeal he told Rajesh looking disappointed. I guess so, Rajesh replied,
But could there be another approach?
The Alternate Approach
Rajesh urged that now was the time to involve the Principal of the
Institute. Nandan agreed to this. They immediately phoned the Principal
and narrated what had happened at their end. The Principal seemed
appalled. He apologized and said he would travel to Goa to sort out the
matters, as the Institute was located in a different state. He assured that
in the interest of the cordial relationship between the Hotel and the
Institute, he would do everything possible to remedy the damage done by
his students. He requested that before the matter is pursued with the
Police, he should be given a chance to intervene. He assured that he

would reach within two days. However, a letter was also posted to him
officially, giving all the details of the event.
The Principal came to the hotel the day after, along with relatives of the
boys. They were very apologetic and ready to pay the damages. They paid
for all the items reported missing which were not found. The Principal
pleaded that the Institute should not be blacklisted due to this stray
incident. He said that he would forewarn the students before sending
them for training. Nandan consented to his request due to the long
standing relationship between the two. But he did make them aware that
Goa Government was about to come out with a regulation that details all
those who join the hotels as staff and trainees would be reported to the
Police. He wanted to make sure that the Principal seriously forewarns the
students whom he sent.