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

[dick dasterdly]

48 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

No! Do You?

 

I do know he never found his TV or Lap Top Computer missing in 6 years, which is maybe more than you can say about his next cleaning lady so far. 

 

Have you notice that the people who have had Cleaning Ladies in the past and have never had a problem with them, are the ones who are their when they are cleaning, or put their valuable away? 

 

Whereas the one that do have problems, whether it be 1 year or 10, are the ones who leave money and valuables lying around when they are not home?

 

Does this suggest something to you?

 

 

New TV system playing up....

Edited August 28, 2016 by dick dasterdly

[dick dasterdly]

46 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

No! Do You?

 

I do know he never found his TV or Lap Top Computer missing in 6 years, which is maybe more than you can say about his next cleaning lady so far. 

 

Have you notice that the people who have had Cleaning Ladies in the past and have never had a problem with them, are the ones who are their when they are cleaning, or put their valuable away? 

 

Whereas the one that do have problems, whether it be 1 year or 10, are the ones who leave money and valuables lying around when they are not home?

 

Does this suggest something to you?

 

New TV system playing up.....

Edited August 28, 2016 by dick dasterdly

[anotheruser]

1 minute ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I agree with staff at a guest house. But then you don't give a person who cleans off the dinner table access to a cash drawer filled with 1,000 Baht Notes either. You also don't give the Cleaning Lady access to the money box. Usually one person is responsible for the Till, and has their own key.

 

So by removing temptation, you are in a way keeping your employees honest. No?

 

That has been my biggest beef about this post. Setting a trap for a long time employee instead of keeping the temptation away.

 

With proper security, it would have been difficult to walk out with his TV or big ticket items. This whole idea of counting his pennies, then way over paying his maid, then crying about 5 bucks missing also doesn't seem right to me either. I wouldn't even noticed if 5 Bucks was missing and if I did I notice it was I would feel partly to blame for leaving it out like that. Just like I would in a hotel room. 

 

Should you be able to trust your maid with money lying around?

 

No!

 

Ever been to a Thai House and see them leaving money lying around on a tale or desk? You would have better luck looking under some rock in the garden then finding this money in there house. So Thais don't do this and they expect you not to either. It really is that simple. This is Thailand and not the Americas, Europe, or Australia.   

 

Yes, you should be able to trust an employee with money. Can you trust them is another question. Anyway I didn't intend to get dragged into a debate. Even a 6 year old child knows stealing is wrong. 

 

You can remove temptation until somebody slips up and gets stolen from. A maid is a person that is trusted in the inner circle. Part of their responsibility is to make sure that trust isn't violated. I fail to see how it is different whether the maid works in a home or guesthouse. 

 

I can imagine recommending this maid to somebody. "Hey I have this great maid I over pay here twice the daily rate and she cleans everything very well. The only thing is she tends to steal whatever isn't nailed down. But hey if you can get over this fact she does a stellar job."

 

Anyway maybe you would tolerate your maid stealing from you but I wouldn't. 

[GOLDBUGGY]

5 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Not necessarily.

 

I had one cleaner for approx. 4 years who was lovely and trustworthy.  Unfortunately she decided to stop when I went through temporary financial problems and had to reduce her hours.

 

My cleaner since (for about 6 years) isn't a great cleaner , but she's entirely trustworthy and it wouldn't cross my mind to hide away money/valuables etc.

 

Paying for a cleaner wouldn't be worth the effort if I had to worry about hiding jewelry/money away whilst she was there....

 

Mind you, perhaps its the 'six year mark'!  Joking obviously.

I don't think anyone is claiming that all cleaning ladies are born thieves. I am just claiming that if you remove the temptation then you are more likely to have them all honest.

 

I suppose like most people you lock up your valuables away when staying in a hotel, but yet don't at home. I am curious as to why one would think the cleaning lady they met in the hallway were they live, is more trusting then a cleaning lady in a 4 or 5 star hotel. Interesting. 

[GOLDBUGGY]

11 minutes ago, transam said:

Bet you Wai Tesco staff......

 

You are talking complete nonsense.......

 

OK you lot, cleaner due, lock the fridge, pay a bloke with an AK to follow her around..

 

But first tell her you are ex SAS and deal with dodgy stuff your way......

Look who is talking complete nonsense now. 

[anotheruser]

1 minute ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I don't think anyone is claiming that all cleaning ladies are born thieves. I am just claiming that if you remove the temptation then you are more likely to have them all honest.

 

I suppose like most people you lock up your valuables away when staying in a hotel, but yet don't at home. I am curious as to why one would think the cleaning lady they met in the hallway were they live, is more trusting then a cleaning lady in a 4 or 5 star hotel. Interesting. 

 

Probably because you have a relationship with somebody you have known for years rather than a maid at a hotel you never met and stayed at one night.

[GOLDBUGGY]

2 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

 

Probably because you have a relationship with somebody you have known for years rather than a maid at a hotel you never met and stayed at one night.

Oh! So you are saying that you have to know this maid personally for 6 years before you hire her as a maid. That there was never a day when she was a stranger to you. 

 

Hum! Interesting Concept! Even if it not true. 

[anotheruser]

Just now, GOLDBUGGY said:

Oh! So you are saying that you have to know this maid personally for 6 years before you hire her as a maid. That there was never a day when she was a stranger to you. 

 

Hum! Interesting Concept! Even if it not true. 

 

I am saying over time when you personally get to know an employee a level of trust would be established. You are really trying to argue over nothing.

 

Let's agree that you should lock your valuables  away and if you somehow forget to do this stealing them is wrong. 

[GOLDBUGGY]

1 minute ago, anotheruser said:

 

I am saying over time when you personally get to know an employee a level of trust would be established. You are really trying to argue over nothing.

 

Let's agree that you should lock your valuables  away and if you somehow forget to do this stealing them is wrong. 

I am saying over time you still might know absolutely zero about the person you have got in once a week, and who you seldom ever see in 6 years. Or sit down and talk to her in a socialized manner. You probably won't even know if she is married or has kids. Just a telephone number in which to call her might be your full extent of your knowledge of her. 

 

Lets agree that if you leave a Gold Watch, Ring, and Big Money on your desk top table, when you are gone, and knowing the cleaning lady is in, and it is missing when you get back, you were careless or foolish if you did that on purpose, by thinking you could trust her. 

 

Lets start their and work our way down to 5 Bucks. 

[anotheruser]

5 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I am saying over time you still might know absolutely zero about the person you have got in once a week, and who you seldom ever see in 6 years. Or sit down and talk to her in a socialized manner. You probably won't even know if she is married or has kids. Just a telephone number in which to call her might be your full extent of your knowledge of her. 

 

Lets agree that if you leave a Gold Watch, Ring, and Big Money on your desk top table, when you are gone, and knowing the cleaning lady is in, and it is missing when you get back, you were careless or foolish if you did that on purpose, by thinking you could trust her. 

 

Lets start their and work our way down to 5 Bucks. 

 

I am going to go back and sit at the grown ups table. It was nice chatting with you.

[GOLDBUGGY]

33 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

 

Yes, you should be able to trust an employee with money. Can you trust them is another question. Anyway I didn't intend to get dragged into a debate. Even a 6 year old child knows stealing is wrong. 

 

You can remove temptation until somebody slips up and gets stolen from. A maid is a person that is trusted in the inner circle. Part of their responsibility is to make sure that trust isn't violated. I fail to see how it is different whether the maid works in a home or guesthouse. 

 

I can imagine recommending this maid to somebody. "Hey I have this great maid I over pay here twice the daily rate and she cleans everything very well. The only thing is she tends to steal whatever isn't nailed down. But hey if you can get over this fact she does a stellar job."

 

Anyway maybe you would tolerate your maid stealing from you but I wouldn't. 

You got it wrong!

 

I wouldn't tolerate my maid from steeling from me as I wouldn't give her a chance to do that. I would either be their when she is cleaning or lock things up.

 

You on the other hand would. So that just tells me that you will go through a lot more maids in Thailand than I will.

 

A Maid part of your inner circle? Ha!Ha!Ha! That is a good one! You probably don't even know her first name.   

[anotheruser]

29 minutes ago, transam said:

So you are saying do not trust a Thai maid......?

 

Also avoid learning their first name even if it has been years.

[rogeroc]

3 hours ago, transam said:

So you are saying do not trust a Thai maid......?

 

Being Thai has nothing to do with it. I still don't see anyone here condoning the actions of the maid. What many are saying is that to leave cash (the most desirable of all thievable items) on plain view is an unnecessary and (if it is done on purpose) unreasonable temptation especially to a poor person. Comparing the desirability of a TV to cash is also a bit strange; yes she could theoretically steal the TV but then she has to get theTV home and transfer it to cash. I have a strong feeling most employers would be sure to notice a mssing TV as well and a pretty good idea of who had access to it !  

 

With regard to Trust placing trust in anyone (even a long standing partner) will always come with risks. If you don't want to lose stuff minimize (you will never eliminate them) your risks! 

[rogeroc]

5 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Paying for a cleaner wouldn't be worth the effort if I had to worry about hiding jewelry/money away whilst she was there....

 

 

Hiding it away is one thing, leaving it on full display is another. I think the difference between these is really the only thing that divides most Posters on this thread. Surely you would not leave expensive jewllery easily accessible if you went out at night and there was no maid coming, purely because of the burglary risk,

[TacoGuy]

Some on this thread have no idea what real wages are in Thailand.  Retail 9000 per month, junior office 15-30,000 month, senior corporate 50-200,000 per month.  Obviously maids are paid a pittance, but to suggest (as one poster did) that "most Thais could live on 52,000 per YEAR" shows how out of touch some of you are.  

Edited August 28, 2016 by TacoGuy

[rogeroc]

7 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

You just read things the wrong way and why it seems crazy to you. 

 

Nobody has made claim the Op was the Bad Guy and the Maid the Good Guy! Some people are just saying he could have handled this situation a lot differently, since he was the guy in control of all this test plan. Personally I think he was rather cruel in how he handled her afterwards. A person in his employment for 6 years and he talks like she is nothing but a thief and could care less about her now. That to me is a Cold Heart!

 

So he has now started all over again with a new maid who may not be ultra reliable, trusting, or do a good job. The Maid now has to find a new employer. 

 

Who wins here?

 

Worth considering this as well.  5% of people are completely dishonest, 5% of people are totally honest, the other 90% are somewhere inbetween !

[GOLDBUGGY]

6 hours ago, anotheruser said:

 

Yes, you should be able to trust an employee with money. Can you trust them is another question. Anyway I didn't intend to get dragged into a debate. Even a 6 year old child knows stealing is wrong. 

 

You can remove temptation until somebody slips up and gets stolen from. A maid is a person that is trusted in the inner circle. Part of their responsibility is to make sure that trust isn't violated. I fail to see how it is different whether the maid works in a home or guesthouse. 

 

I can imagine recommending this maid to somebody. "Hey I have this great maid I over pay here twice the daily rate and she cleans everything very well. The only thing is she tends to steal whatever isn't nailed down. But hey if you can get over this fact she does a stellar job."

 

Anyway maybe you would tolerate your maid stealing from you but I wouldn't. 

If you start out trusting your employees then you are headed for a big disappointment. 

 

A long long time ago I took a job for awhile as Head of Security in Canada for a large shopping center. This required a Criminals Record Check on my part and also some Security Training at the Head Office. From there I learnt some interesting facts.

 

Do you want to know which category makes up the greatest amount of Shop Lifters? It isn't your customers! It is your employees!  The truth is, and if given a chance, they would rob you blind. 

 

Part of Good Customer Security is to try and remove the temptation to rob you as far away as possible. This is why they keep valuables in glass counters and behind the sales desk, and have alarm systems set up to alert an item being removed without paying for it first, and CCTV Cameras all over the place. So this is quite easy to control. 

 

But how do you control someone who has access to all these items and where you can't remove the temptation? Who at any given moment can hide something in their purse, or in a washroom, to come back and collect it later or on a day off, or give it to someone else in the store who is not working their.

 

Random Checks helps, as does scanning your employees in and out of the work site, but your employees will still remain you Number 1 Thieves. 

 

So you can put that in your pipe and smoke it.   

 

 

 

 

[GOLDBUGGY]

Has anyone seen "Cry Wolfe" on one of those Crime Channels. He is a Private Investigator who works out of Los Angeles. In one case he was hired by a Hotel Owner as they were having an unusual amount of in room safes being broken into and money taken or missing. So he hired Wolfe to see if he could find the thief. 

 

Wolfe and his Coworker pretended to be a wealthy husband and wife and booked a room in this hotel. They originally thought it was a Bartender, as he was the only one with a Criminal Record for theft. So they laid a trap for him by Wolfe leaving his wallet on the bar full of money, while he went to the toilet. When it was return, with all the money intact, they were able to rule him out. 

 

They then came to the conclusion that it had to be one of the Maids or Bell Hops, as they were the only ones who had access to these rooms. So they set up hidden cameras in the hall way, in their room, and also in there safe. During the day they flashed a lot of cash around and made it known they would be out of their room for most of the night. 

 

They did catch the thief Red Handed. So was it the Bell Hop or Maid? Actually it was the Owner's Wife! She slept with the Bell Hop once and he made a video of that. Then Black Mailed her into breaking into the the room safes. 

 

Trust a Maid with Cash?

 

Hell! You can't even trust your own wife with cash (sometimes)!    

[rogeroc]

42 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

Do you want to know which category makes up the greatest amount of Shop Lifters? It isn't your customers! It is your employees!  The truth is, and if given a chance, they would rob you blind. 

 

 

 

 

I suspect you are in danger of getting a few 'rubbish' comments on this as it does seem very surprising. I know it to be the case in many major retail organisations in the UK as well.

[richard_smith237]

A good person will not steal from you. A good Maid / Nanny will not steel from you. 

 

That said, we are all subject to temptation, some more than others... Drive is what effects our behaviour.

 

Drive Theory in its simplest terms is 'an instinctual need that has the power to drive the behaviour of an individual'.

 

Temptation can drive instinct and thus the behaviour of an individual.

 

Individuals have varying tolerances of behaviour, but its also not that simple.

 

Maids & Nannies do share our lives here (some of us anyway), trust is built up, but Maids & Nannies are employees, they have their own lives, their own families, their own pressures and their own futures..... hence trust is never implicit, its never 100%.

 

The degree to which we handle and trust those who help in our home is what makes each and everyone of us differ and can only be evaluated on individual merit - there are no generalisations and those trying to are just going to argue themselves into a hole, go round in circles and end up comparing apples & oranges in a flawed attempt to win a point in this debate. 

 

 

Our live in Maid / Nanny is incredible and perfectly trustworthy, there is family history (her mother works for my Inlaws) - we do leave our valuables around, wallets, phones, iPads computers etc...   the consequence of our trust being broken has implications on her family, I just can't see this happen and neither can my Wife who's known our Maid / Nanny since they were children - but that is our situation and perhaps different from many.

 

That said:  I don't leave a $20,000 watches lying around... common sense can still be applied.... but 10,000 baht in a Wallet I don't worry about too much because quite frankly - I do trust my Nanny / Maid... I trust her in our lives I trust her with my Son and if I didn't she wouldn't be working for us. 

 

 

 

[tropo]

14 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

A good person will not steal from you. A good Maid / Nanny will not steel from you. 

 

That said, we are all subject to temptation, some more than others... Drive is what effects our behaviour.

 

Drive Theory in its simplest terms is 'an instinctual need that has the power to drive the behaviour of an individual'.

 

Temptation can drive instinct and thus the behaviour of an individual.

 

Individuals have varying tolerances of behaviour, but its also not that simple.

 

Maids & Nannies do share our lives here (some of us anyway), trust is built up, but Maids & Nannies are employees, they have their own lives, their own families, their own pressures and their own futures..... hence trust is never implicit, its never 100%.

 

The degree to which we handle and trust those who help in our home is what makes each and everyone of us differ and can only be evaluated on individual merit - there are no generalisations and those trying to are just going to argue themselves into a hole, go round in circles and end up comparing apples & oranges in a flawed attempt to win a point in this debate. 

 

 

Our live in Maid / Nanny is incredible and perfectly trustworthy, there is family history (her mother works for my Inlaws) - we do leave our valuables around, wallets, phones, iPads computers etc...   the consequence of our trust being broken has implications on her family, I just can't see this happen and neither can my Wife who's known our Maid / Nanny since they were children - but that is our situation and perhaps different from many.

 

That said:  I don't leave a $20,000 watches lying around... common sense can still be applied.... but 10,000 baht in a Wallet I don't worry about too much because quite frankly - I do trust my Nanny / Maid... I trust her in our lives I trust her with my Son and if I didn't she wouldn't be working for us. 

 

 

 

Ok, so how much would you trust her with? 20k, 50k, 100k, 1 million? Where is her breaking point? Would it be possible to find one (an employee) that wouldn't break?

 

Do you know exactly what is in your wallet at any particular time? I know my wallet could be skimmed at any time and I would be none the wiser. I'd probably think: "I thought I had more in here - what did I spend it on?"

[JJGreen]

I agree with staff at a guest house. But then you don't give a person who cleans off the dinner table access to a cash drawer filled with 1,000 Baht Notes either. You also don't give the Cleaning Lady access to the money box. Usually one person is responsible for the Till, and has their own key.

 

So by removing temptation, you are in a way keeping your employees honest. No?

 

That has been my biggest beef about this post. Setting a trap for a long time employee instead of keeping the temptation away.

 

With proper security, it would have been difficult to walk out with his TV or big ticket items. This whole idea of counting his pennies, then way over paying his maid, then crying about 5 bucks missing also doesn't seem right to me either. I wouldn't even noticed if 5 Bucks was missing and if I did I notice it was I would feel partly to blame for leaving it out like that. Just like I would in a hotel room. 

 

Should you be able to trust your maid with money lying around?

 

No!

 

Ever been to a Thai House and see them leaving money lying around on a tale or desk? You would have better luck looking under some rock in the garden then finding this money in there house. So Thais don't do this and they expect you not to either. It really is that simple. This is Thailand and not the Americas, Europe, or Australia.   

Seems pointless to hire a cleaner in your world...

The expense of triple key security systems for vacuum cleaners , time release.locks on mops and brooms, household ckeaning agents weighed and measured before and after usage.

All valuables safely secured and itemized in the security camera and laser beam protected safe room...complete with Faraday cage.

Oh....lets not forget the special safes for designer clothes ... because that's valuable....and individual lock boxes for shoes and brand name runners.
Pin code protected toilet paper covers and weighted alarms on the stack of spare soap bars...
All the time with your overarching security of you being there watching the cleaner like a hawk!
On exiting the cleaner is given a complete body pat down and passes through a full body scanner.

Only with all this security....and keeping an eagle eye on her...can she then be held responsible for any theft... but only if the theft amount is greater than the average daily Western wage

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, tropo said:

Ok, so how much would you trust her with? 20k, 50k, 100k, 1 million? Where is her breaking point? Would it be possible to find one (an employee) that wouldn't break?

 

Do you know exactly what is in your wallet at any particular time? I know my wallet could be skimmed at any time and I would be none the wiser. I'd probably think: "I thought I had more in here - what did I spend it on?"

 

It would be a little daft not put large sums of money out of the way and in the Safe even if I lived alone...  thus, while I understand your point, its  unrealistic... 

 

As for skimming wallets - I suppose its possible, however, as I previously wrote - each and every situation must be judged on its individual merit.... I see your examples as unrealistic given the history and have made the judgement not to double check every detail. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sioux2012]

On 8/27/2016 at 11:15 AM, 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. 

 

 

 

 

first of all, you need to read what you post and secondly learn basic maths before you comment.

1000week/2hrs=500hr

1000weekly *4weeks =4000

Now that wasn't to hard was it?

A Platinum member eh?

 

[DSJPC]

GOLDBUGGY...and the point of your loooooong diatribe is???????????????????

[yogi100]

On 27/08/2016 at 4:10 AM, 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.    

 

He was testing her. 400 baht had been stolen previously.

 

Some household thieves assume their victims are stupid and once they have gotten away with it will try it on again. It's the thief who is usually the stupid one, this woman lost a cushy well paying number because of her stupidity. Even a cleaner in the UK would not get 500 baht an hour.

[jacko45k]

21 hours ago, berybert said:

You could be right you could be wrong.

We have a maid who has been the best part of honest for 6 years. When asked what happened to the 500 baht that was left on the table she may have had no idea. But not wanting to lose a job that was well paying she may have replaced it despite the fact she didn't take it.

Have any of us made the mistake of thinking something has been stolen only to reconsider later ?

I've made that mistake before. Have you ?

You cite a completely different case.  There are circumstances where you are 'sure', particularly when the theft was repeated, as per this case. People do make mistakes, but sometimes you have to pre-empt the big one too. I am still with my wife despite a spell of such events.

[BruceMangosteen]

16 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I am saying over time you still might know absolutely zero about the person you have got in once a week, and who you seldom ever see in 6 years. Or sit down and talk to her in a socialized manner. You probably won't even know if she is married or has kids. Just a telephone number in which to call her might be your full extent of your knowledge of her. 

 

 

Some remain married under these conditions. So we may as well ask if you trust your wife/husband? any more than you do your maid??

[rogeroc]

Sorry Transam i dont see how your reply links to my text. You lose me sometimes! 2 hours per week, felt like family?

Edited August 29, 2016 by rogeroc

[GOLDBUGGY]

9 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

A good person will not steal from you. A good Maid / Nanny will not steel from you. 

 

That said, we are all subject to temptation, some more than others... Drive is what effects our behaviour.

 

Drive Theory in its simplest terms is 'an instinctual need that has the power to drive the behaviour of an individual'.

 

Temptation can drive instinct and thus the behaviour of an individual.

 

Individuals have varying tolerances of behaviour, but its also not that simple.

 

Maids & Nannies do share our lives here (some of us anyway), trust is built up, but Maids & Nannies are employees, they have their own lives, their own families, their own pressures and their own futures..... hence trust is never implicit, its never 100%.

 

The degree to which we handle and trust those who help in our home is what makes each and everyone of us differ and can only be evaluated on individual merit - there are no generalisations and those trying to are just going to argue themselves into a hole, go round in circles and end up comparing apples & oranges in a flawed attempt to win a point in this debate. 

 

 

Our live in Maid / Nanny is incredible and perfectly trustworthy, there is family history (her mother works for my Inlaws) - we do leave our valuables around, wallets, phones, iPads computers etc...   the consequence of our trust being broken has implications on her family, I just can't see this happen and neither can my Wife who's known our Maid / Nanny since they were children - but that is our situation and perhaps different from many.

 

That said:  I don't leave a $20,000 watches lying around... common sense can still be applied.... but 10,000 baht in a Wallet I don't worry about too much because quite frankly - I do trust my Nanny / Maid... I trust her in our lives I trust her with my Son and if I didn't she wouldn't be working for us. 

 

 

 

I agree that a good person will not steal from you. I also agree that a person not that honest won't steal from you either, if they have nothing they see of value they can easily take. Or risk losing their job or going to jail for.  

 

But lets concentrate on this Good Person you are talking about here. How many low paid cleaning ladies do you think fall into the category of being able to trust totally with money lying around? Would you say 99 out of 100 are trustworthy? Or would you say 1 in 100 is trustworthy?  Or is it somewhere in-between this figure? 

 

The point being that you don't really know the exact amount that are honest and a Good Person, and neither do I. Even if it was 99 out of 100 that are trustworthy, you still don't know if you are the one with the bad apple. 

 

I also agree that if you are going to have a "Live In Maid", there is a certain amount of trust you need to give her. But having a stranger living in your house you must also agree that you are taking on a certain amount of risk also. It is not feasible for you to bolt down your Refrigerator or TV, although many hotels do that. Even if you did do this you can't bolt down your kids. I know as I have tried. But you can reduce your risk by hiring someone you know who has a good references, and is not a criminal. 

 

But having someone coming in 2 hours a week to clean your place and wash your clothes and who you might have found working in the hallway where you live, is not the same as a Live In Maid. So you don't need the same level of trust here. For those 2 hours a week you can either be their then, or at the very least lock up your valuable. For sure don't leave money lying around unless it is a tip.