We were in Belthangadi, a tiny nothing little down in northern Karnataka, and anxious to get back to someplace with clean beds and decent food as soon as possible. A bus pulled up headed express to Mangalore, and we wanted seats. There were quite a few people getting on, so Priya left to get seats while Rahul & I stayed with the bags. I thought, "She'll have a hard time getting three seats..." so I left my bags with Rahul, went and pressed into the crowd in order to get on the bus and help get seats.  The general method of getting on a bus in India is simple. Don't shove, just kind of push people out of the way. If you put your hand in the doorway first and manage to pull yourself up onto the step, it doesn't really matter if someone else was actually standing in front of you and therefore closer to the doorway itself.  So, I pushed in close to the crowd, several of us ladies clumped together.

But, a young kid, about 15 was pushing in front of me from the side, probably sent to get seats, too, as he had no bags. He was being rude anyway, shoving too hard, but he was also a guy and pushing his away in between a bunch of ladies, even more inappropriate.  "He's being very rude," I thought.

Then, subtly, he stepped back. For being so rude and pushy to suddenly stop, alarm bells went off in my head. "He took something..." my instincts said. Without checking my bag, although a brief picture of me searching his pockets only to discover he hadn't taken anything flashed before my eyes, I grabbed his wrist.  Pulling his arm so he turned to face me, sure enough, there in his other hand held behind his back is my wallet. It had been in the front pocket of my bag.

All this while everyone around me is pushing their way onto the bus.  So, here I am, standing in the middle of the bus stand, wallet in one hand, pickpocket in the other. I stood still for a second, looking at him looking at me, completely lost as to what to do next. Instinct kicked in, and I yelled, "Chor hai!"  Hindi for "He's a thief!"

Immediately Rahul came running. "What?!"  I told him, "He stole my wallet." He grabbed the kid and smacked him upside the head a couple times* while some men from the village ran over to see what was going on . Rahul explained to them what was going on, handed the kid's wrist over to one of them. Meanwhile, the bus is pulling out and Priya is inside yelling, "Stop! Stop!"

So we run to catch the bus. By this time, there are about 20 men standing around the kid making sure he didn't go anywhere. Hopefully they scared him enough that he won't try it again. Otherwise, they seemed more threatening than harmful.

On the bus, I realized, "We're in South India."  In Hindi, "chor" is thief... but in Malayalam, "chor" is food or rice. So, I'm yelling, "Thief! Thief!" and everyone around me is hearing "Food! Food!"  Silly foreigners.  

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(An appropriate brand of Indian punishment for things severe enough to deserve punishment but not to be left up to the police, such as pickpocketing, theft, 'eve teasing'/sexual harassment)