Almost 1.27 crore bedroll items have gone missing from air-conditioned coaches in Indian Railways in the last four years, translating into a loss of almost ₹105 crore. The figures, obtained from the RTI query filed by The Indian Express, illustrate the growing difficulty of theft of passenger amenities aboard trains across the country.
According to railway authorities, at least 1.27 crore bedroll items were stolen between January 2022 and May 2026. The losses include towels, bedsheets, pillow covers, blankets and even pillows that are provided to passengers travelling in AC coaches.
Indian Railways provides every AC passenger with a standard bedroll kit consisting of one pillow, two bedsheets, one blanket and two towels. On average, nearly 8 lakh passengers receive these amenities every night while travelling on long-distance trains.
The bedroll service was temporarily suspended in the COVID-19 pandemic for fear of virus transmission. But the service resumed completely in January 2022; that's when thefts started to rise drastically.
According to the RTI data, the number of stolen bedroll items increased by 56 per cent between 2022 and 2025.
Among all the missing things, hand and face towels accounted for the highest number of thefts. More than 46.54 lakh towels disappeared during the period. 41.13 lakh bedsheets were also taken away in the same period, making linen theft one of the biggest operational challenges for the national transporter.
The railway records also showed 23.59 lakh pillow covers, 12.95 lakh blankets and 2.76 lakh pillows were stolen from trains during the four-year period.
The report included responses from 16 railway zones and 54 railway divisions across India. Ten divisions had the highest number of theft cases. These include Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Ranchi, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Sonpur, Danapur and Bilaspur.
The huge-scale theft has had a big financial impact. Railway officials estimate that companies contracted to supply and maintain bedrolls have suffered losses of nearly ₹105 crore over the past four years. In many cases, part of those losses have been recovered from the salaries of contractual railway workers who work on the linen.
Railway authorities said it was a problem and they have been working on it and have taken measures to get rid of it.
Some people, officials say, simply pack towels, blankets or bedsheets into their luggage before leaving the train. To tackle this issue, Indian Railways plans to increase monitoring for bedrolls, install CCTV cameras in the train and train staff who distribute and collect linen.
The Railways will also launch awareness campaigns requesting passengers not to remove railway property from coaches, and as such thefts in turn drive up operational costs and affect the quality of services offered to millions of travellers.
Data from this month shows an important issue for Indian Railways which is one that is rarely discussed. In the end, passenger comfort is the most important thing, and the theft of public property is of equal importance to service delivery and ultimately saving money.
