The Indian Railways has fully resumed delivery of linen supplies to passengers from January 2022, after the Covid pandemic halted such delivery. But between January 2022 and May 2026, at least Rs 1.27 lakh crore worth of bed spare parts were stolen from trains, mainly by passengers.
This resulted in a loss of approx $104.51 crore to contractors, according to an RTI investigation by The Indian Express. About 8,000 passengers travel in AC buses every night across the Indian Railway network, she said.
As each flight ends, about one in every 1,000 passengers departs with at least one piece of bed linen.
The data was complied with responses from 54 departments across 16 of the 18 railway zones, with some sharing partial information.
When aggregated to the year level, they show a 56% rise in such thefts from 2022 to 2025.
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Where do most thefts occur?
Each passenger traveling in an air-conditioned cabin is generally provided with two linen sheets or sheets, a pillowcase and a face towel. Towels top the list of stolen items, as they are the easiest to carry. The IE report said at least 4,654 lakh face towels were stolen in the last four years, followed by bed sheets (41.13 lakh), pillowcases (23.59 lakh), blankets (12.95 lakh) and pillows (2.76 lakh).
Ten divisions across seven zones of the Indian Railways account for most of the total linen theft: 67%. These include Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaipur (Rajasthan); Ranchi; Delhi; Mumbai; Ahmedabad; Sonepur and Danapur (Bihar); And Bilaspur. Among them, Bikaner (25.76 lakh items) and Ranchi (9.31 lakh items) witness the majority of linen thefts, the report said. Followed by Mumbai (8.17 lakh), Jodhpur (8.09 lakh), Ahmedabad (6.94 lakh) and Danapur (5.72 lakh).
However, some departments also saw a decline in linen theft, Delhi being one of them. The national capital reduced theft rates by 79% (3.27 lakh to 68,013 items), followed by Ahmedabad (down 83%) and Samastipur (down 86%). Meanwhile, two southern divisions, Tiruchirappalli and Palakkad, did not report any theft.
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Who bears the cost of stolen linen?
While the theft cost bed linen contractors more than $100 crore, this amount is mostly recovered from the salaries of trainers working for contractors.
“Generally, linen (items) are collected by attendants after passengers disembark from the trains. The responsibility of counting linen in railway coaches lies with the agency deployed to distribute linen,” a railway spokesperson told IE. The spokesman said that the cost recovery for any shortfall “is made from the agency’s invoices.”
Contractors also acknowledged the problem, with one saying the theft forced them to cancel their contract with the railway. However, attendees said they bore the actual cost of the theft, claiming that in most cases, it was their salaries that were cut by contractors to cover the cost of stolen linen.
