Little Thieves

There's a couple of thieves in Nadia's class. Scary but true.

Nadia has been losing her money since the third week of January until recently. At first, I thought she spent her money at the canteen, buying tid-bits or snacks. She told me she didn't purchase those items and knowing Nadia, she hardly eats during recess. I even thought Nadia was lying to me about spending her money. However after listening to her story about her friend witnessing one boy took something from her purse during class, I immediately change my mind. According to her friend, the boy took her purse from her bag (she always keep her purse in her school bag) and took something out of it before putting the purse back into the school bag. I also realized that the stealing starts after her class-seating was rearranged. Previously she sat next to Yasmin and Raemy. Now she sits beside the boy-thief and her money starts to disappear from time to time.

Thinking of taking the matters in my own hands WITHOUT reporting the case to her class teacher, I decided to make Nadia keep her purse in her uniform pocket at all times. We started doing this early this month (February). Things going pretty well and Nadia managed to retain her RM1.40 from Monday till Friday. I thought our thief-repelling technique is working flawlessly.

I thought wrong.

Last night I checked Nadia's purse again just to be sure that her RM1.40 is still there. To my surprise, the RM1.40 is no longer there. At first, Nadia was quite reluctant to tell me about what happened last Saturday when I asked her about the money. Finally the truth came out. She was practically 'robbed' by one of the girls from her class. Nadia was on her way to her class with Amelia (her ex-kindie friend) after recess when the girl-thief suddenly stopped her and took her purse from her baju kurung pocket. She took all RM1.40 and gave the purse back to Nadia without saying anything. Nadia did ask the girl why did she take her money. The girl just ran away and never answer her.

I was speechless when I hear the story. How can a child be so corrupted at such young age?

Realizing that I won't be able to manage this matter alone anymore, I texted Nadia's class teacher and made an unofficial report about the incident. I mentioned the thief's name because I know Nadia is telling the truth. This has got to stop. First a boy-thief. Now, a girl-thief? Until when Nadia has to be the victim of this thief gang?

I told Nadia afterwards to make an immediate report to any of her teachers as soon as she found her money was being stolen or as soon as anybody take her money away from her. The problem with Nadia is she doesn't report. Therefore, her teacher is unaware of such incidents. After a short discussion via text messages, her class teacher promises me to further the investigation on Nadia's case. Nadia also agrees not to bring any money to her school until her teacher successfully catches the class thief / thieves.

I hope the stealing will stop soon. I don't want it to happen to Nadia again, and certainly I don't want this to happen to any other children in her class. I just hope that the parents of these little thieves are aware of their kids' bad habit. Lets just hope for the best for the sake of every children in the class.