In the last 20 days, temples in the walled city and the outskirts have reported 11 burglaries, one of which was committed during the day. The temptation in each of these cases were either the donation boxes, utensils or the idols' ornaments.

On December 31, while the world was celebrating the arrival of the new year, robbers broke open the lock on the front door of the Harishwar Mahadev Temple in the Wadi area and escaped with the Rs 700 that had accumulated in the donation box. On the night of December 25, cash and valuables -- including gold ornaments -- worth Rs 9,900 went missing at the Gayatri Mandir near Ranchhodji-ni-Wadi in Nizampura.

Despite the sudden rise in temple thefts, the city police have been able to solve only two cases; no clues are available on the others. But police officials agree that unemployment and a lust for money in an increasingly consumeristic age were factors in the erosion of respect even for religious places.

But Kalpesh, a 20-year-old youth caught red-handed last week while escaping with silver utensils from the Ram Mandir near Alpana Talkies, insisted during interrogation that he was a believer. ``I touched the feet of the idol before stealing the utensils'', he told the police during interrogation. ``I even sought divine forgiveness for my deed''.

But this was not Kalpesh's first effort to relieve the gods of their wealth; he confessed to robbing temples in Ankleshwar, Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Motera as well. His reasons: unemployment and consequent financial problems in the family.

Sometimes, the economic compulsions are wholly imagined. A temple thief caught by the Wadi police recently turned out to be a well-paid employee of the Life Insurance Corporation. During interrogation, he said it was the temptation for more money that drove him to steal silver worth Rs 1,050 from the Jain temple on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Mandvi.

Another factor that emerges from an analysis of the temple thefts is the burglars' familiarity with the temple routine. Ranchhod Goswami, a priest at Dandia Bazaar's Neelkantheshwar Mahadev temple, highlighted this when he pointed out to the police that the thieves had struck on December 15 between 2 p.m and 4 p.m, the lunch break, when neither staff nor visitors were in evidence.

Asked to explain the sudden rise in temple thefts, Wadi police inspector I D Upadhyaya attributed it to ``a lack of fear of god''. Jaswantbhai Barot, manager of the Indumati Trust which runs the Udainarayan temple, echoed his views, maintaining that while theft of cash could be explained by the economic recession and unemployment, the removal of a 100-year-old trishul could only be attributed to ``irreligious tendences''.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Mohan Jha, the seasons also have a role to play. ``Winter is the safest, as even the priests sleep in their rooms, leaving the temples unguarded'', he said. ``We have asked temple managements and pujaris to empty the donation box at night to prevent thefts''.

Assistant Commissioner of Police M S Kevlani, in-charge of Crimeline, said the temples' lax security on one hand and the prosperity on the other attracted thieves. ``Since temples are nobody's property, their security is not treated as seriously as it should be'', he said.

Police Commissioner J Mahapatra, on his part, said he had instructed local police station in-charges to step up vigil near temples. ``But we are focusing on detection to check economic offences'', he said.