Dogs prevent theft from temple donation box in Chiang Mai

Monks and novices heard the dogs barking and howling at 6.30am so they came out of their living quarters and found a man cornered by the temple dogs outside a building.

The monks and novices of Wat Don Chia in Tambon Pa Daed then captured the man and handed him over to Weerachai Chaimongkol, the tambon chief.

Weerachai said Phra Atikarn Wutthipong, the abbot of the temple, later dropped the complaint against the man. He said the suspect was an unemployed man from a neighbouring country and he appeared to be drunk. The temple decided not to press charges against him and his identity was withheld out of compassion as the man has been unemployed, the tambon chief said.

Weerachai said the man broke a glass window of the building where the temple’s reclining Buddha image is kept with an alleged intent to steal donations from a box inside the building.

But the dogs were alerted by the noise and cornered him before he could enter the building.

The man reportedly admitted to stealing money from the donation box on April 11 because the temple had not locked the front door of the building. But the temple later found out that donations had disappeared so it locked the door and was planning to install a security camera.

The abbot said he told the man to turn over a new leaf in exchange for his decision not to press charges against him.