Linen stolen from AC coaches in Indian Railways: In 4 years, 1.27 crore bedsheets, towels, blankets, pillows
And as every trip ends, some of them, about one in every 1,000 passengers, walk away with at least one bedroll item, an investigation by The Indian Express reveals.The newspaper filed Right to Information (RTI) applications with all 69 divisions of the Indian Railways. Replies were obtained from 54 divisions across 16 of 18 Railway zones, some shared partial information. These records show that from January 2022, when bedroll services had fully resumed after the pandemic, to May 2026, at least 1.27 crore bedroll pieces were stolen — mainly by passengers, officials said. The data, when compiled year-wise, shows a 56% rise in such thefts from 2022 to 2025.Set against the sheer scale of what the Railways hands out every single day, it’s a drop in the ocean. But that’s exactly what makes the numbers interesting: call it theft or temptation, the data is less an indictment of the housekeeping staff than a snapshot of passenger behaviour too. The theft has cost bedroll contractors an estimated Rs 104.51 crore in the over four-year period, the RTI data suggests — money that coach attendants employed by the contractors say is mostly recovered from their salaries.
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