The suspect

She was frail, thin, sort of mousy and punctuated every sentance with ooh la la. She told us she was 32, a waitress with medical problems and wanted to become a youth counselor. The more I think about the incident I am pretty sure it was her. I had no proof at the time as she had only stolen cash and had no way to prove that she had robbed me. But the more I think about our interaction my gut and Laura's gut points towards our Swedish roommate Anna.

Once upon a time in my senior year of college I lived with a kleptomaniac/compulsive liar who told magnificient stories about her family and where she got her money and electronic toys. It wasn't until a month or two in which I started to notice inconsistancies in her stories and the stories from others did I know to start doubting her. I was extremely naive and pretty stupid but I just didn't know people lied so much and I did not completely doubt her lies until things of my own started to go missing. When Swedish Anna started to tell her stories, I started to remember my former crazy roommate and my gut cried out to me to beat her up. But I had no proof. Had she taken any of my treasures from the trip, my camera equipment or my hard-drive I would have beat her up and hung her upside down from the top of the nunnery with my laundry cord and I wouldn't have cared what the nuns or Jesus thought. It also would have been easier to prove and to call the police on it. But she didn't and that was probably the wisest thing she did. Quite frankly I just started to feel sad for her pathetic stories and for the danger she put herself for 200 dollars. Because of the poor exchange rate, 200 USDs does not go very far and Swedish Anna spent two nights in a room with an asian girl, twice her size, who usually walks around with a mono-pod/club for protection and who was extremely visibly angry with what had happened. The nun at our hostel looked slightly skeptical at Anna and gave me a hug and told me I would make it back 200 times and that Jesus was watching all. In the end I don't think anybody believed Anna, but we all let her go because we had no proof.

I am grateful that I have the upbringing, work experience, contacts, education and skills to easily make back the money she stole in a few hours. But I am extremely angry at myself for not acting out and for being duped again by another thief. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. If I fall into a similar situation again, the third person will pay for it three-fold.