For many train passengers, taking home a railway towel or bedsheet may seem harmless. But for the staff responsible for managing onboard linen, every missing item can come straight out of their salary.
A video shared by YouTuber Naveen Singh has gone viral after featuring Amit Yadav, an Indian Railways employee who distributes and collects linen in AC coaches. In the clip, Yadav explains how missing towels, bedsheets and blankets often leave him paying from his own pocket.
Railway employee explains cost of missing linen
Yadav says his job involves distributing bedsheets, towels and blankets to passengers before collecting them at the end of the journey.
While it appears to be a routine responsibility, he says missing railway property has become one of the biggest challenges of the job.
According to Yadav, the cost of every item that goes missing during his shift is deducted from him. He says he has to pay Rs 60 for a towel, Rs 250 for a bedsheet and Rs 700 for a blanket if passengers steal or fail to return them.
Recalling one particularly difficult incident, Yadav says he once had to pay Rs 5,000 from his monthly salary of just Rs 14,000 to cover missing linen.
The experience, he says, forced him to rethink how he distributes railway linen. Instead of placing towels on every berth, he now gives them only to passengers who specifically ask for one.
Even then, he says, the problem has not gone away.
Watch the video:
Video sparks discussion online
Yadav also recalled a recent incident in which a passenger questioned why towels were no longer provided by default.
After he explained that the practice had changed because of frequent thefts, the same passenger allegedly took the towel while getting off a Delhi-bound train.
Sharing the video on Instagram, Naveen Singh urged people to think about the workers affected by such incidents.
"Thoda in logo ka bhi soche (Think about them too)," he wrote, before ending the video with a simple appeal: "Please stop stealing."
The video has since resonated with social media users, with many expressing sympathy for Yadav and calling for greater accountability from passengers who take railway property, leaving frontline workers to bear the financial burden.
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