A Sikh gentleman was engaged by a tin mine as a watchman. When I inquired about his working hours the watchman informed that it was a 24 hour job.
It was his habit to bring his beddings comprising of a wooden and choir bed but after a while he used to park his bed in the store room of the mine. This practice was observed by most of the workers safe for the supervisory staff. The senior supervisors and other representatives of the employer had not bothered about him as he was insignificant and invisible. He was not even on the payroll being paid by petty cash at the end of the month by the mine clerk. There were no records of payment as he was deemed a non employee.
One day after payday the employees decided to have a party. The watchman was naturally invited. He had one drink too many being encouraged by his buddies. He decided that he had too many drinks and wobbled his way to the adjoining building to take out his beddings. However he was too drunk and could not find his way to his beddings. He fell on the floor and could not get up. He was sleepy and lay where he fell and went off to sleep. At about 10.00pm some thieves observed the watchman was not at his post and started dismantling mining equipment, raided the office and removed whatever petty cash that was in the mining office. After stashing away the loot in their car they went back to the party at the office.
The mine employer seldom went to the mining area at night. But he received a mysterious call that night alerting him that there was a lot of noise coming from the mine. He was worried as besides petty cash he had gone to the bank that morning to withdraw a large sum of money to pay wages to his workers the following day. The money was packed into bundles and he left them in a drawer of his desk. He was a bit uneasy to leave the money in his office but it was late in the night and he was worried to take the money back to town as the mine road was dark and lonely. Visibility too was very poor. He looked around for someone to accompany him. There was none. He informed his wife of the call and his decision to go back to the mine. The wife cautioned him to take along someone and not go alone. She advised him to call for a police escort. He assured the wife that it was unnecessary as he had paid his office staff and they were probably at the office celebrating. Moreover his watchman would be around at the entrance to the mine.
When he arrived at the entrance to the mine he could hear loud sounds and realized his workers were enjoying themselves. But he was surprised the mine watchman was not around at his usual post. This was unusual as the watchman was always around to greet him.
He alighted from his car and walked up to his office which was in the same building where there was noise. He was surprised that the door was unlocked. He distinctly remembered he had locked the door as he had left the payroll at the office. Panic struck as he pushed the door open. The office had been ransacked. His desk drawers were also open and there was no sign of the bundles of money he left in the drawers. He went next door to call his chief clerk who was having a sip of beer amidst the din and beckoned him to his office. The Chief clerk was stunned. He had not evidenced this before. Every pay day it was common for the employees to gather at the office and take part in the merriment. This was the first time money and mining equipment were removed. It was decided to call over the police and to report the losses. The Police arrived shortly and began their investigations. They realized the watchman was missing and decided he could be the initial suspect. However since it was late at night and the place was dark they decided to meet up in the morning to continue further investigations. The supervisor was unhappy to leave but he agreed as there was no choice.
They agreed to meet at the office at 8am. At 8 30am the Supervisor drove up with two policemen in his car. Everyone agreed that the theft must have occurred at night and the culprit was the watchman as he has not been seen since yesterday. The investigations were left to the police and it was circulated among other tin miners that the watchman had stolen money and mining equipment and has absconded. Everyone thought the case had been solved.
Three days later the mining employees complained of a foul stench emanating from the office. An investigation team was set up to scour the area. It was
Only then they realized a corpse was stuck near the manhole of the sewage pipe. They stopped work and reported the matter to the Police. When the
Police brought out the corpse, the mining supervisor acknowledged that it looked like the watchman who has been missing. After the mud and debris was cleared the Supervisor was able to confirm that it was indeed the watchman and surrendered the corpse to the police for post mortem.
The missing money still remained a mystery as it was not found on the corpse.
Image (c) Tanjung Tualang Tin Dredge (also known as TT5)
Content (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy @ mynameisgana@blogspot.com
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