Filch-happy Indian passengers steal Railway bedroll worth Rs 100 Cr in 4 years
RTI report says 10 railway divisions across seven zones account for 67 pc of linen theft; face towel the most stolen item; coach assistants often pay for the loss
It is par for routine in India to walk away with train property. So much so that railway authorities have to chain rusting mugs in stinky train toilets. Same goes for steel glasses at railway station water kiosks. But that hasn’t deterred passengers – including those who can afford AC tickets – from stealing.
More than 1.27 pieces of bedroll items, worth over Rs 100 crore, including bedsheets, blankets, pillows and towels, have reportedly been stolen from AC railway coaches of the Indian Railways between January 2022 and May 2026.
Items worth Rs 100 Cr stolen in 4 years
The staggering figures were revealed in an RTI report filed by the Indian Express with all 69 divisions of the Indian Railways. Response to the RTI filing only came from 54 railway divisions, with many of them omitting the cost of lost items or declining to share theft figures for all linen categories.
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The report says, the worth of the items, amounting to Rs 104.51 crore, is often deducted from the salary of coach attendants.
It also says the thefts increased by 56 per cent between 2022 and 2025.
Maximum thefts in Bikaner Division
For passengers travelling in all AC compartments, the railway provides a pair of bedsheets, a blanket, a towel and a pillow and a pillow case. Around 8 lakh passengers travel overnight in these AC compartments per day.
According to the IE report, the RTI data revealed that face towels were the most stolen item and 46.54 lakh pieces were stolen in the said period. It is followed by bedsheets, with 41.13 lakh pieces stolen by passengers and pillow covers (23.59 lakh). Blankets and pillows, which are heavier and easily noticeable while carrying, are the least stolen items, at 12.95 lakh and 2.76 lakh pieces respectively.
The report says that 10 railway divisions across seven zones account for 67 per cent of the overall linen theft. The divisions of Bikaner in Rajasthan is where the maximum number of thefts – 25.7 lakh items – happened. It was followed by Ranchi in Bihar (9.31 lakh), and Delhi (8.21 lakh).
Around 8.17 lakh bedroll items were stolen from the Mumbai division while 8.09 lakh items were flicked from Jodhpur. Ahmedabad reported the theft of 6.94 lakh items while the number was 5.72 lakh for Bihar’s Danapur.
Who pays the cost?
The RTI reply revealed that the theft rose in Bikaner division from 2.99 lakh to 12.34 lakh items since the Railways restarted providing bedrolls for passengers post-COVID in 2022. Delhi, however, has been able to cut down its theft rate by 79 per cent during the same period.
While one would assume that the Railways pays for the loss, railway attendants interviewed by IE said the money is usually recovered from their salaries.
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Addressing concerns about the alleged complicit role of attendants in the theft, a Railway spokesperson told IE that there has been no proof to establish such a claim.
Another officer, however, said that the money is recovered from the agency responsible for distribution of linen.
“Generally linen (items) are collected by linen attendants after de-boarding of passengers from trains. The responsibility of account of linens in Railway coaches is of the agency who has been deployed for linen distribution. For any shortage, cost recovery is done from the bills of the agency,” IE quoted a Railways as saying.
Miffed contractors
Some contractors told IE that they had no other way but to discontinue their contract with the Railways due to the nuisance.
“A significant portion of the earnings is deducted from the bill for these cases. We had a three-year contract with the Railways, but we had to end it in 14 months due to delay in payment. We had deployed around 60 staff in coaches for the distribution in five trains. For every stolen item, they recover Rs 115 for pillow, Rs 198 for bedsheet, Rs 55 for pillow cover, Rs 48 for face towel and Rs 343 for blanket,” the supervisor of a bedroll distribution firm in the Solapur division of Central Railway told Indian Express.
Embarrassing moments
In a recent instance, a family in the first AC compartment of Purushottam Express was caught stealing bedrolls. A video of the incident, which happened in 2025, went viral.
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The thefts are also reminiscent of recent instances where Indians either at home or abroad have taken liberties in public places. In January this year, frenzied visitors were seen grabbing books placed on shelves at the World Book Fair in Delhi.
Recently, an X user also shared a note by a hotel in Switzerland specifically asking Indian guests not to pack buffet food into bags for later consumption.