My ultra reliable maid of 6 years, now stealing cash.

[LannaGuy]

she abused your trust it's that simple and Thais have a predilection for dishonesty  

[ChrisKC]

15 hours ago, worgeordie said:

If you leave  money laying around,it's just putting temptation in peoples

way,and you should never do that,she probably was short of money,

but did not steal any of your many expensive items,so count yourself

lucky,and I think you will have a job finding an honest reliable replacement,

maybe you should have talked to her and ask what problems she had.

regards Worgeordie

Temptation is one thing, stealing and then lying about it is another. The victim is the one who's money has been stolen. It is NOT his fault. He had trust in her built up over 6 years; that's now gone. She would lose face and pride (pathetic, isn't it?) to ask for help, now she has lost her job! Good riddance to people who steal after trusting them and giving them B1000 for two hours work a week - for six years?

[GOLDBUGGY]

15 hours ago, xvend said:

 

Hi Nancy, it's my house. I am very careful with money. Ill pick 1 baht off the street if I see it.

 

I empty my pockets for the exact reason you describe. So it doesn't end up in the laundry.

 

I guess my point is there was a certain matter of trust buit over the years where it was comfortable for me to leave a few hundred baht on a counter/desk.

 

Just ranting and disappointed.

I am sorry but in your first post you said: " I physically counted 170THB and left it on my desk just as a test".

 

To me it sure doesn't sound like you built up very much trust over the years when you do things like that, and as you now claim. This more likely sounds to me like you were baiting a trap hoping something would fall into it, then come here to try and justify your actions. You also seem to hold high expectations for people you don't even know. So lets set the record straight. 

 

Should you trust a poor person you really don't know too well with you valuables?

 

No!

 

Especially when you can lock them up so you don't have to.    

[little mary sunshine]

If you are able to pay 1000baht for two hours of 

domestic help, she probably thought 170 or 400

baht means nothing to you, yet it is a significant 

amount to her.   Stealing is stealing, and I too

would have discharged her on the spot; however,

 a long time ago I learned never to put  that much

 

 

temptation in front of people, human nature being

what it is.

 

[ChrisKC]

3 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I am sorry but in your first post you said: " I physically counted 170THB and left it on my desk just as a test".

 

To me it sure doesn't sound like you built up very much trust over the years when you do things like that, and as you now claim. This more likely sounds to me like you were baiting a trap hoping something would fall into it, then come here to try and justify your actions. You also seem to hold high expectations for people you don't even know. So lets set the record straight. 

 

Should you trust a poor person you really don't know too well with you valuables?

 

No!

 

Especially when you can lock them up so you don't have to.    

You don't appear to have the read the post properly. There were two previous occasions when money was stolen, but giving her the benefit of any doubt that HE might have made a mistake, he decided to "test". he was right! When he was sure he took positive action. 

[GOLDBUGGY]

11 hours ago, dageurreotype said:

I've just had a young Thai guy deliver a custom made computer to my house around 20 kms from his. I'd met him when he and another guy had delivered some items from a large store here and I'd jokingly asked if he could fix computers as mine had just died on me, again. To my surprise he'd told me he was a computer engineer just helping his dad out with deliveries from said superstore. He'd told me when he'd finished work, he'd come back and take a look at my dead computer. This he did in the pouring rain, at the arranged time. He'd then accessed a parts store from his laptop and given me an estimate as to how much a brand new spec computer would cost. I gave him the money in cash and told him to go ahead. He'd said he'd be able to get it to me by Monday, he had it here today, Friday.

 

The computerised/itemised bill he'd presented was a thousand over that which I'd given him. Without his asking,  I'd given him the balance plus (it transpired) a 400 baht labour charge. He didn't say anything, again. When I'd noticed my error he told me he'd just wanted to help me out and never mind. I gave him what I'd had left in my wallet, a paltry, to me, 1k for all his running around, on top of pick up/delivery, go buying the parts and assembling them.

 

They're not all bad and frankly I couldn't live anywhere I couldn't trust anyone. There are some complete kuntz here though. Both Thai AND farang.

 

 

Well if you can't live anywhere where you couldn't trust anyone, then I have sad news for you. Book a ticket on the first Rocket Ship to Mars, as there is nowhere here on Earth you can live with.

 

The days where you could leave you car keys still in your car, and find it parked where you left it the night before, or your doors unlocked to your house with money lying around while you are out, are long gone. 

[Advocate]

Temptation such as money should not be left openly in front of any person. The owner is guilty of causing temptation.

 

Furthermore the owner may be mistaken about how much money it left and wrongfully blames the worker for money purportedly missing.

 

I would never leave money, other than pocket coins, in a place that could cause temptation to a worker.

[cyberfarang]

16 hours ago, xvend said:

 

Hi Nancy, it's my house. I am very careful with money. Ill pick 1 baht off the street if I see it.

 

I empty my pockets for the exact reason you describe. So it doesn't end up in the laundry.

 

I guess my point is there was a certain matter of trust buit over the years where it was comfortable for me to leave a few hundred baht on a counter/desk.

 

Just ranting and disappointed.

You really pay a woman 1000 baht for 2 hours housekeeping once a week? For that money I`ll volunteer to do the job myself. I would have thought 500 baht top whack. Never known anyone to pay that amount and she must have been a super duper housekeeper.

 

If this is true then that woman must be the biggest idiot of all time for stealing petty cash from you.

[GOLDBUGGY]

21 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

she abused your trust it's that simple and Thais have a predilection for dishonesty  

I have stayed in many hotels in Canada, the USA, and Europe. I still lock my things up before I leave me hotel room and when I know the maid will come in to clean my room. Do You?

[Sphere]

Leaving money lying around creates thieves, as much as wearing bikinis creates rapists.

 

With apologies to Gen. MickeyMouse.

[ChrisKC]

2 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I have stayed in many hotels in Canada, the USA, and Europe. I still lock my things up before I leave me hotel room and when I know the maid will come in to clean my room. Do You?

You don't know the difference between someone you have known for six years and complete strangers in Worldwide hotels? This post is about the betrayal of trust.

[goatfarmer]

54 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I understand your point but at the same time I don't agree in how you handled this. I have worker in several places overseas where accommodations were provided including maid service. The Golden Rule is never leave anything of value lying around. Especially money! Lock it up as you would if you were staying in a hotel room. 

 

I agree that it is your place and you shouldn't have to do this. But as you said, you lost an ultra reliable maid of 6 years and she lost a job over chump change. Both of which could have been avoided if you played your cards differently. It is the small stuff they take as they think you won't miss that or make a fuss over that. If it was you Lap Top Computer, then this is a different story. If you want to test honesty and loyalty test your wife or friends, and not your maid.  

I agree. I always make sure my wallet is in my pocket before I allow my maid to go into my room. My presumption is that an employee will always steal, no matter how honest they might have been, if there is an easy opportunity. 

It is the duty of the employer to avoid tempting the employee by making sure that controls are in place. This is a sad situation because having found out that she stole there is really no alternative but to let her go. Move on and don't repeat the mistake.

[GOLDBUGGY]

23 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

Temptation is one thing, stealing and then lying about it is another. The victim is the one who's money has been stolen. It is NOT his fault. He had trust in her built up over 6 years; that's now gone. She would lose face and pride (pathetic, isn't it?) to ask for help, now she has lost her job! Good riddance to people who steal after trusting them and giving them B1000 for two hours work a week - for six years?

He had trust built up over 6 years? Read the Ops first post again. He set aside 170 Baht on his desk to see if she would take that. How much trust do you see it that?

 

That is like saying you trust your wife totally and completely, but at the same time hire  Private Investigator to follow her around for a couple of weeks and report everything he sees to you. 

[Fallangpakwan]

About 25 years back my girlfriend of the time (air hostess away mostly); hired a maid for me. A real nice Burmese girl who after a few months was receiving a lot of phone calls from a Burmese guy. One morning I woke to find she'd gone; but the 4 or 500 baht cash I left hanging on a magnet thing on the fridge door for her household use was left there. The only item I found missing was a THAI/ENGLISH dictionary.

[ChrisKC]

3 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

He had trust built up over 6 years? Read the Ops first post again. He set aside 170 Baht on his desk to see if she would take that. How much trust do you see it that?

 

That is like saying you trust your wife totally and completely, but at the same time hire  Private Investigator to follow her around for a couple of weeks and report everything he sees to you. 

Don't be silly! Read the Op and recognise that in spite of 6 years of trust it suddenly seemed he was losing money that he suspected was being stolen by his maid. In trying to establish with real evidence that this was true, he set a trap and subsequently she had to admit it! Seems very fair to me.

[BruceMangosteen]

16 hours ago, xvend said:

 

My maid kept continually asking me to pre-pay her weekly salary but gave no reason why, I knew she was in the shit, but I have no idea her other sources of income and don't appreciate being treated like an atm, especially without being able to gauge the likelihood that it would be a one time thing.

 

 

The famous last words of guys who marry bargirls. Even after buying the house and supporting the village for a year, it's never going to be a one time thing.

 

I once had a maid(weekly, one hour) who was stealing from my piggy bank. I kept ten baht coins in it. One day after her visit, it felt lighter. The next week I counted it, made it exactly 70 ten baht coins. She cleaned the room, when I got home, only 50 coins in said bank. I called her into my unit(she worked for the apartment building management) and she began telling me her problems. I told her "that's not why you are here" and she got undressed and asked me not to tell the management. 

[bridge2bridge]

I am suprised it took her SIX years.

My Ex Thai wife started stealing from me after TWO years.

 

[GOLDBUGGY]

25 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

You don't appear to have the read the post properly. There were two previous occasions when money was stolen, but giving her the benefit of any doubt that HE might have made a mistake, he decided to "test". he was right! When he was sure he took positive action. 

Oh I did read his post properly. He said "First Time, around 400 baht left on my kitchen island, I knew it was there, left my house for work and came back. It was gone." "Second Time he counted 170 Baht and left that on the desk' .

 

So both were Tests! Both were Traps! It was just he did not want to go out and pick through garbage to see if she was telling the truth the First Time. So he had to set a more clever Trap the Second Time. Both were foolish child games! Trying to test the honesty of someone who may very well need this money badly is just plain foolish.

 

If I had a very sick baby at home and needed money to take him to a doctor and buy medicine, and someone left money lying around like this, and I knew it was not much money for him, I would take it to. And so would You!  

 

 

[smotherb]

16 hours ago, NancyL said:

If this has happened to you in other countries, why do you leave money laying around?  

 

I had no idea my husband left loose change in his pockets until we bought a clothes washer and I started to do our laundry vs. dropping it off at the "laundry lady.  Sure it was just "lose change", but often I find 60 -100 baht with each load of laundry in his many pockets.  Has any laundry lady here in Thailand ever returned the loose change?  Nope.  She had returned the occasional USB stick or other item that looked like it might be valuable or missed, but loose change.  Never.

Sorry, must be gender-logic; I miss your point. Money left about ones own home is not a tip for whoever happens to be there. My wife knows I may leave something in my pockets so she checks my pockets to see if I left anything before tossing it into the washer or taking it to the laundry.

[GOLDBUGGY]

38 minutes ago, cyberfarang said:

You really pay a woman 1000 baht for 2 hours housekeeping once a week? For that money I`ll volunteer to do the job myself. I would have thought 500 baht top whack. Never known anyone to pay that amount and she must have been a super duper housekeeper.

 

If this is true then that woman must be the biggest idiot of all time for stealing petty cash from you.

First of all he gives her 1,000 Baht for 2 hours a week of work. So I gather from that he means 1,000 Baht a month, or 250 Baht a day. The minimum wage is 300 Baht a day. 

 

Second of all how does he know how long she works? He gave her his house key and already says he is at work during her work time. How much work can anyone do in 2 hours? Ask your wife how long it takes here to clean your house if she can only clean once a week. Laundry alone takes much long than that. Do Left Over Dishes! Wash Floors! Clean Counter Tops and Dust Furniture and Desk! Make bed with fresh linen! Replace Bathroom with Fresh Towels! Clean Shower, Sinks and Toilet! And so on!

 

Hell! No way in 2 hours! 

[dotpoom]

4 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

Why are you playing with her?  Like others have said you wouldn't leave 50 bucks on the table in your own country, so why do it here? It's like poor people entrapment. 

 

The OP said in his opening remarks that he left the money out on the 2nd occasion " as a test". I think that was very reasonable, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after the first occasion but at the same time needed to be sure that she was not a thief. He discovered she was, then fired her.

      All the proper course of action in my view.

[GOLDBUGGY]

38 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

Don't be silly! Read the Op and recognise that in spite of 6 years of trust it suddenly seemed he was losing money that he suspected was being stolen by his maid. In trying to establish with real evidence that this was true, he set a trap and subsequently she had to admit it! Seems very fair to me.

Yeah! I am not surprised it seems fair to you. 

[GOLDBUGGY]

38 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

Don't be silly! Read the Op and recognise that in spite of 6 years of trust it suddenly seemed he was losing money that he suspected was being stolen by his maid. In trying to establish with real evidence that this was true, he set a trap and subsequently she had to admit it! Seems very fair to me.

Yeah! I am not surprised it seems fair to you. 

[fatyank]

wow amazing how many are blaming the victim here

 

he caught her twice.......that is the tip of the iceberg.......she probably got away with it many times over the years.

 

 

[GOLDBUGGY]

56 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

You don't know the difference between someone you have known for six years and complete strangers in Worldwide hotels? This post is about the betrayal of trust.

You obviously don't know the difference between knowing someone, an giving that person a key to clean your house one day a week and while you are at work, and perhaps see this person once a month to pay them.  

 

This post is about "Betrayal of Trust"? He is not talking about his wife cheating on him. He is talking about a poor maid he set a trap for and she fell for that. 

 

Leave an extra 1,000 Baht on the bar table when you go for a leak and see if it is still their when you get back. Give a Taxi Driver 2 x 100 Baht, plus 1 x 1,000 Baht for a 300 Baht Taxi Ride and say thank you. and see if he tells you that you gave him too much.. There are all kinds of Mind Games people can play to test something foolish.

 

All I see here is that he lost a good maid, who job is to clean his house and not be a Bank Teller, and she lost a good job. No Win Win here at all for anyone. 

[rogeroc]

1 hour ago, ChrisKC said:

You don't appear to have the read the post properly. There were two previous occasions when money was stolen, but giving her the benefit of any doubt that HE might have made a mistake, he decided to "test". he was right! When he was sure he took positive action. 

 

Well i have read the Post again and it reads to me as if there was only one previous occasion before the test. It also sounds a little to me that the 1st occasion (the 400 baht) was probably a test is well. I don't know about in Thailand but if the UK Police were involved in a similar instant, even with a confession, i suspect there would be no action taken as the test/s would have been considered  'Agent Provocateur (unreasonable temptation).  I am not defending the actions of the maid but i think the situation was handled incorrectly.

[lust]

My Filipino friend that I was staying with for a while when I first moved to Bangkkk had a maid who worked in the building, but dropped in to clean the condo while he was at work. I would go out for most of the days but some days I would just stay in and relax. She let herself in to the condo and cleaned while I just relaxed. Later, she came back into the condo and saw that I was still there and she left. This happened on a few different occasions. I told my friend that this is not normal, but he just brushed it off. Then my iPhone 3GS went missing. It had a shattered screen and it was with my stuff. I told my friend that his maid stole it. Later, he noticed he was missing a bunch of shirts. He fired her, but she still worked in the building. 

[seajae]

1 hour ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

Yes but.....when you spend a night in a hotel room do you lock up your extra money, credit cards, and passport when you are out and when the maid comes in to clean your room? Why" Is it because you believe every maid is a thief? 

 

No! You do it because you don't know this person and you don't trust strangers with your valuables. Or at the very least don't want to tempt them. I see  no difference here.

 

Yes she was under his employment. But I doubt he knew her too well even if she worked one day a week for 6 years. What is obvious is that if you are cleaning someone else's house for small money, you are doing this because you are poor and need the money. 

 

20 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

First of all he gives her 1,000 Baht for 2 hours a week of work. So I gather from that he means 1,000 Baht a month, or 250 Baht a day. The minimum wage is 300 Baht a day. 

 

Second of all how does he know how long she works? He gave her his house key and already says he is at work during her work time. How much work can anyone do in 2 hours? Ask your wife how long it takes here to clean your house if she can only clean once a week. Laundry alone takes much long than that. Do Left Over Dishes! Wash Floors! Clean Counter Tops and Dust Furniture and Desk! Make bed with fresh linen! Replace Bathroom with Fresh Towels! Clean Shower, Sinks and Toilet! And so on!

 

Hell! No way in 2 hours! 

mate, you appear to have a problem with reality, first off a hotel is not your own home so naturally you lock away your valuables although I have often left small change on the counter tops when I have emptied my pockets. Not as a "test" to check their honesty but because I simply didnt worry about it, mind you it was always there when I came back to my room too, in fact when my stay finished I still left it their for the maid as a thankyou only it was added to each day. In your own home to have a maid steal from you is a pretty low act especially when they have been with you for many years, maybe you dont trust anyone else apart from yourself but I like to think there are honest people in the world. Leaving valuables lying around in your home isnt a test, its called having a life.

Also 2 hours a week is 8 hours a month which is one days work or do you think you should pay someone for a full days work just because they are there for part of it, again your sense of reality is very strange. Appears you are trying to say that he is ripping her off, mate you really need to pull your head out of the sand and wake up to the real world or at least sit down and think before talking garbage

[slippery snake]

Pretty stupid to leave money out in the open like that anyway......  you have put the temptation in front of her, so now you blame her after 6 years working for you,  and now the poor woman has lost her job..   your a sadist ! 

[GOLDBUGGY]

27 minutes ago, dotpoom said:

 

The OP said in his opening remarks that he left the money out on the 2nd occasion " as a test". I think that was very reasonable, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after the first occasion but at the same time needed to be sure that she was not a thief. He discovered she was, then fired her.

      All the proper course of action in my view.

And what was the reason he left 400 baht on the kitchen island the first time, knowing full well the maid would have to see this and move it to clean their? That he was just forgetful, even when he knew exactly how much he left their, and called her right away when it was missing. No Way! It was just a Trap! She just out foxed him as she said she threw it in a garbage and knowing he wouldn't go out to check. 

 

I am sorry but I just help seeing the foolishness in all of this. Knowing you won't be home but yet leaving money lying around on purpose for a poor person to see, who may very well need this money badly, to test her honesty? Right!

 

I can't wait to hear from him again the next time after he hires a new maid, who he plays this same game with, so he can come here and claim all Thais are Thieves!