Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

I have a distant relative who frequently misplaces things. It could be clothes or money or important papers. As soon as it's discovered they are missing, suspicion begins to snake through her being. The more you try to make her retrace her steps in an effort to locate the lost object, the stronger become her declarations: the object has been stolen by the domestic help in her home. It seems she abandons her search in favour of cooking theories about how 'these people' can't be trusted instead. Elaborate stories then start to form about how she saw X come into her room, or Y cleaning where she didn't have reason to be.