When a farmer turned up with a crew of pickers to harvest a field of onions, he was both dismayed and impressed: he was dismayed because somebody had stolen them all, and was impressed because whoever it was, they had managed to harvest and make off with 20,000 kilos of onions, in the dead of night, without any lights – he was obviously employing the wrong people.

Joking aside, it was a bitter blow as they had suffered almost daily petty thefts by people turning up with their cars and filling a shopping bag or a small sack for home consumption, but to find that somebody had cleared out the whole crop, trampling what they didn’t manage to collect in their haste, it was enough to make him cry. Believe me 20,000 kilos of onions can produce a few tears.

The theft was a mammoth task – clearing out a whole field of onions in the dark before the farmer arrived at first light to harvest them himself. The thieves might not be honest, but lazy there were not on this occasion.

The farmer puts the loss at around 6,000 euros (by coincidence, one million pesetas…) without taking into account the irrigation system, which was wrecked. Then, of course, there is the labour force, who suddenly found that they were surplus to requirement and sent home without the day’s pay, that they were no doubt counting on this Christmas. No, it isn’t a joking matter.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)