THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

which we kept all our fieldnotes and other important documents, had been
cut open with a knife, presumably by someone looking for money, but
everything inside them was !eft as it was. This was a tremendous relief
- no 'remembered vi 1 lage' for us!
News of our break-in travel led quickly around the community and
everyone was very concerned. Our family said they had warned us about
moving 'across the stream' but were sorry nonetheless, People came
around to thinking that it had to have been someone we knew locally,
probably some boys (in view of the kinds of things that were taken), and
a few weeks later the nephew of our landlord was seen with the ye! low
lighter, although this was no proof that he had actually taken it. We
did not want to pursue the culprits, and fortunately {for us at least)
attention was diverted from our case by a far more substantial robbery
which took place elsewhere.
On the night of August 9/10th a partially sighted old man living on
his own had his life savings of 16,800 NRs (nearly £340) and a tola
(about Hoz.) of gold sto!en. At a time when there were many rifts
developing in the community, the crime appeared to bring people closer
together for a few days. We sat in the tea shop on August 11th and
watched posses of men setting off in a! directions. Suspicion was
quickly directed to the old man's granddaughter, who was said to have
stolen 750 NRs (about £15) from him once before, and a friend of hers
who had run away from her parents in another pancdyat and had been
living with her mdma in Tamaphok, Neither had been seen since the
break-in was discovered. Peop!e took these crimes very seriously. The
tea-shop owners embarked on major renovations, replacing the old bamboo
mats, bits of cardboard and wooden poles which had constituted the walls