According to Mid-Day, a popular news service in Mumbai, a gang of thieving eunuchs are hypnotising unwitting housewives and relieving them of their valuables:
Asha Dilip Pandit, 55, was chatting with her daughter Shivali, 26, a teacher, when two eunuchs entered their home. Shivali gave them Rs 5 but the eunuchs refused to leave, while one of them asked for a glass of water. While Shivali was getting them water the other eunuch asked for tea.
One of the eunuchs followed Shivali into the kitchen. The other sat at the entrance of the house and told Asha that according to Vaastu Shastra, her entrance was in the wrong direction. This, she was told, was the main cause of suffering in the family.
The eunuch then asked for an empty glass, water and salt. They asked Asha and Shivali to watch the glass, and hypnotised them. They stole Asha’s mangalsutra and gold chain, Shivali’s gold ring and her father’s ring
“The eunuch entered my house at 10.45 am. We regained consciousness at 12.30 pm. We don’t remember anything that happened in between,” said Asha. They later managed to piece together the story after one of their neighbour’s told them that a eunuch was seen standing outside the house.On realising they were looted, the family registered an FIR at LT Marg police station. The incident apparently is a common one in the area.
“We have carried out several raids to trace the gang of eunuchs who are hypnotising people before looting them. We have carried out searches at Kamathipura, Tardeo, Mahim, Bandra, Colaba and Bhandup areas,” said a police officer.
We would like to remind our readers to guard their own valuables with renewed vigilance and to steer well clear of anybody making non-sequiterial requests for liquids and salts anywhere within their vicinity.
Source: Mid-Day
Tags: eunuch, gang, hypnosis, Kalbadevi, looting, mumbai, theft
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Derren – are you a eunach? We need to know. Don’t make me get Julian Assange on your ass…
Seriously!?? Surely not possible. Thought you could come out if a trance if something dangerous was happening?
Well they`ve certainly got balls !
er, how do people know they’re eunuchs? do they wear signs in india?
Thieving mentalist eunuchs?! What the…?!
I’m wondering what asking for salt is all about… a way to cause confusion/misdirection which can then lead them into a trance-state? How odd, yet interesting…
Perhaps they will get a new TV show here in America.
Thieving bloody eunuch hypnotists eh?
I’d castrate the lot of ‘em!
You’re sure Hypnocat the hypnotizing cat wasn’t involved?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_vlbexyGr0
Roz: Eunuch is a common mistranslation of hijra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_%28South_Asia%29). This being a story from India, I think it’s very likely that that’s what was meant. There’s a lot of superstition and prejudice about them, so in India this would probably be a quite believable story.
Such rubbish, feeble minded people who believe this nonsense.
I’m not sure what’s less believable. People being “hypnotized” while their valuables are stolen, or eunuchs travelling in gangs?!?!
Thats something you don’t hear every day! Interesting way of robbing people. I’m not justifying it but you shouldn’t let people you don’t know in your home etc…
I been to India. Don’t mess with them!
Those guys couldn’t have been Eunochs. You have to have real B*lls to do something like that!
her entrance was in the wrong direction.
No problem. Just sit sidesaddle in future.
steer well clear of anybody making non-sequiterial requests.
Damn! It wasn’t until you said that, that I realized they’d stolen my dictionary as well.
So being a eunuch gives you special hipnotist powers? or you just have more time to learn the tecniques because you are a eunuch?
“one of their neighbour’s told them that a eunuch was seen standing outside the house.”
Clearly the whole eunuch thing was a brilliant deception technique, which according to their neighbour, was obviously used to maximum effect.
How do you spot a eunuch? (Unless they were naked) and if it was so obvious why would you let a couple of eunuchs into your house – that would be a little too random for me, although I would probably have a chat with them on the door step and take any Literature they had to offer.
“The other sat at the entrance of the house and told Asha that according to Vaastu Shastra, her entrance was in the wrong direction”
Eunuch Feng shui masters – now that is random.
Well Codifier, you can at least believe in the gangs of marauding eunuchs:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=86234
Well they’ve got to earn a living somehow, as the song says “a eunuch’s life is hard… and nothing else”.
Shaun: As I said to Roz above, ‘eunuch’ is a common mistranslation of hijra, a group of third-gender people who are biologically male but dress female. They used to be castrated as they reached puberty, but that’s not common practice anymore. They’re also considered to be able to curse or bless people, so people would likely let them in because of that. They deal with lots of prejudice in Indian society, so I doubt that this story happened the way the women said it did, but people would probably believe their account over there.
Berber Anna: it is all very random anyway.
Berber Anna: They just sound very random to me. What next Transvestite bank robbers, actually that kind of makes sense as they would have a good disguise. If they go as Panto Dames it could add fun to an otherwise harrowing experience, as you could have public participation, particularly when the Police are chasing them “There behind you”
Shaun: It’s only random because it’s something you’re not culturally used to. In India, hijra are usually poor and often reduced to begging in the streets, and they’re seen as strange, somewhat scary and ‘magical’ people. So to someone from that culture, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch that these people would use the powers they are perceived as having to steal from those wealthier than them. It wouldn’t be seen as strange that the women let them in, as you tend not to want to displease someone with the power to curse you.
I’m not saying this actually happened the way it’s reported — that seems unlikely to me — but I am saying that the ‘strangeness’ or ‘randomness’ of the story is a product of cultural differences.
Berber Anna : There are many things in cultures that should not be part of culture at all, including eunuchs, Burkas and all other types of culturally excepted human degradations.
If someone chooses to be being a eunuch by choice then it still remains unnatural and therefore rather random.
Morris Dancers on the other hand are fantastic and we should, in this country, consider introducing compulsory Morris Dancing National Service. (I am Joking)
I totally hate the word random (eg. Berber Anna: it is all very random anyway.)
WTF is not random by the way? only those things which you set out to do?
Oh, so I go to the store and the clerk is picking up a piece of trash from under the register, totally random.
or, so some bum is standing on the street, totally random.
Things aren’t random, they just are what they are. Geez.
jack: You commenting on the word random is RANDOM