Bidhuna (Uttar Pradesh): In a bizarre incident, a monkey stole a bag of cash from the boot of a moped parked in the compound of the tehsil office in Uttar Pradesh’s Bidhuna town and then showered the currency notes from the branch of a nearby tree. The simian also tore up some of the notes, rendering them useless.
A video of the incident has surfaced, showing a mad scramble to collect currency notes falling from the ‘sky’. Two persons are spotted on the roof of a shed, picking up the money.
By the time the drama ended, Rohitash Chandra had lost Rs 28,000. Most of it had been pocketed by people, while the rest was destroyed by the monkey.
Chandra and his son Anuj Kumar had travelled on a moped, from the Dondapur village in the Auraiya district of the state, to the tehsil office to get a plot registered. They were carrying a bag containing Rs 80,000. The bag was kept in the boot of the two-wheeler.
The father-son duo parked the moped close to where the lawyer was sitting and got busy in paperwork. The monkey got down from a nearby tree, managed to open the boot, and decamped with the bag.
Even as an alarm was raised, the monkey opened the bag, probably in the hope of finding something to eat. On finding the bundles of cash inside, it started throwing it away. People rushed forward to collect the money. The bewildered owners also did their best to collect what they could.
In the video, a man is heard saying that people should return the “mehnat ka paisa”, but the advice fell on deaf ears.
A few did return the money they had collected. By the time the chaos ended, Chandra had only Rs 52,000. There were some bits and pieces of currency notes lying around but they were in no condition to be exchanged at a bank.
“The monkeys have turned into a menace here. Unless you are careful, they destroy all kinds of things, including vital documents. One can’t even have food in peace. They simply snatch it away,” a lawyer said.