Monkey Steals ₹42,105. Police Know Exactly What to Do: Bring a Banana

The police had a problem.

A monkey had ₹42,105.

And, apparently, it had no intention of giving the money back.

The bizarre episode unfolded in Ayodhya’s Civil Lines area, where a woman identified as Anju Devi was reportedly left trying to recover her cash after a monkey grabbed it. The money had apparently become the animal’s latest prize.

So what do you do when the suspect has four limbs, a very strong grip and absolutely no interest in cooperating?

You don't chase it. You offer it a banana.

How did a monkey end up with ₹42,105?

According to the Free Press Journal, the incident took place in the Civil Lines area under the Kotwali Nagar police station.

The monkey reportedly grabbed ₹42,105 belonging to Anju Devi and held on to the cash.

The situation quickly became less like a conventional police complaint and more like an unusually high-stakes negotiation.

Police personnel were called in, including Sub-Inspectors Ashok Kumar and Pankaj Singh, along with two other personnel, the report said.

And then came the tactical question. How do you recover stolen property from someone who cannot be reasoned with?

Why didn't the police simply chase it?

Because that could have made things worse.

According to the report, officers avoided trying to forcefully grab or chase the monkey. Instead, they used food to distract it.

Enter the banana.

The officers reportedly offered the monkey a banana. While the animal was busy eating, police quietly retrieved the cash.

No dramatic chase. No wrestling match. No monkey-cop standoff.

Just a banana and some very careful timing.

Did the police recover all the money?

According to the Free Press Journal, yes. The entire ₹42,105 was reportedly recovered and returned to Anju Devi.

That makes the banana one of the more successful pieces of police equipment deployed in Ayodhya this week — although, strictly speaking, it was lunch.

Was this really a “monkey robbery”?

That is where the headline needs a little caution.

It is certainly a wonderfully robbery-shaped story: cash disappears, a suspect is identified and police recover the money.

But legally, this was not a conventional theft case involving a human accused.

The available report describes the monkey as having grabbed the cash, after which police recovered it by distracting the animal. There is no indication in the reporting reviewed that the monkey was formally treated as an accused or that a criminal case was registered against it.

In other words, Ayodhya police solved the cash problem without needing to file charges against the actual culprit.

And what did the monkey get out of it?

A banana.

That may be the funniest part of the entire episode.

For a few moments, the animal had ₹42,105 in its possession. Then the police arrived with a much simpler proposition.

Cash for humans. Banana for monkeys. The monkey took the banana. The police took the money.

Everybody, apparently, went home with what they actually wanted.

The episode is a reminder that policing sometimes involves much less force than people imagine — and occasionally much more fruit.

In Ayodhya, at least on this particular day, the case of the missing ₹42,105 was solved not by a chase, but by knowing exactly what would distract the suspect.