In the hostal sometimes we have guests who say things are missing from their room. We then kindly ask the guest to really check all their bags and see if they didn’t put it in a spot they forgot they put the item. Usually they find it or remember they lost it in another place.
In this case the guest didn’t notify the reception, but went straight to the Tourist Police. The Tourist police came and as a standard procedure they take the side of the foreigner. They threaten the hotelowner, that the hostal can be closed down, and in reality if a complaint is really charged to the authorities, it causes a lot of administrative problems for the hostal, and basically the police gives one option to the hotelowner: Fix it with the police, and fix it with the guest.
This is what happened.
On the other hand, the police did a small investigation towards the guests, and found several inconsistencies in their story. The money that was supposedly stolen came from a hidden part of the wallet, where all bills where folded tightly, but in the main section of the wallet unfolded bills were found. The guest didn’t have a proper explanation of the unfolded bills.
What we as hotelmanagement always find odd, is that complaints from guests always come on their return trip ( the night before they leave Peru ), and not the night they arrive. Most likely it is that they overspend their budget, find out about the airport tax, and do anything to get money, or lower the rent, by complaining about the paint on the wall, or a noise in the door, or even theft.
The housekeeper that had access to this room, is a trusted employee with several years of experience in our hostal. He knows how important it is to be honest, and never failed us.