A jewellery shop in Tumakuru, roughly 60km north of Bengaluru, discovered its missing gold and diamond ornaments worth Rs 10 lakh had been ‘stolen’ by a rat, after reviewing CCTV footage.
Employees at Vishwas Jewellery first noticed around 10 rings missing during a routine stock count, and initially suspected theft since there was no sign of the shop’s shutters being forced open.
Owner Vishwas said the team went back through the CCTV recordings and were shocked to see a rat carrying off a gold ring, which led them to track the rodent’s movements around the shop.
Following the trail to the rat’s burrow, staff dug it up and recovered close to 10 rings, three gold chains and several diamond-studded pieces, together weighing more than 50 grams and worth an estimated Rs 10 lakh.
Footage of the recovery operation has gone viral online, with social media users comparing the episode to a comedy film plot and joking about the rodent’s expensive habits.
Reports on the incident did not mention any police complaint, with the shop able to retrieve the missing jewellery on its own once the rat’s burrow was located.
Rats are known to drag small, shiny objects back to their burrows, a behaviour attributed to their instinct to hoard items alongside food, though jewellery theft on this scale is rarely documented on camera.
Tumakuru, located about 60km north of Bengaluru, is a district headquarters town in Karnataka known for its coconut trade and, more recently, its growing role as an industrial corridor near the state capital.
Jewellery store owners across the region have reportedly begun reviewing pest control measures after the incident drew widespread attention on social media.
Videos of the CCTV footage have circulated widely on social media, with users comparing the incident to a scene from a comedy film and joking about the rat’s taste for fine jewellery.
Photo by Nnr2025, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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