This morning, I was awakened by the owner of the hotel who wanted me to come with her to the police. She had even dressed up for it.

The girl was sitting at the sollicitor's office, the lady the owner had been talking with the evening before. They had decided that the girl needed to be scared out of her wits, to make sure she didn't do anything like it again.

On the way to the police, the girl tried to plead with me, but the owner had made up her mind, and she was sure the girl was still lying. At the police station, a nice policeman took the owner's statement, luckily I didn't have to say anything, I just needed to be there in all my gringaness.

The policeman talked to the girl, and of course she admitted taking the money, because of her situation at home. I didn't understand the specifics, but it turns out she has to take care of her mother, grandmother and brother on her meagre salary, which is of course impossible. However the story she told me yesterday was something completely different, proving the owner's suspicions.

Anyway, the policeman, who probably sees many of these cases on his desk everyday, was quite sympathetic. He told us that, unless I wanted to prosecute, which of course I didn't, they would not make it official and she would just be kept there for the day, to make it all sink in a bit more. On the way back to the hotel, the owner told me it hurt her to do this, but she has to think of her own businesss, which could be ruined because of this.

I felt really bad, it's so unfair and I feel like I can't really blame the girl, but at the same time I can't feel guilty because of being born in a rich country. I suppose it's a dilemma you always encounter when travelling developing countries, even though this has been the first time it's been brought home to me so forcibly. I still haven't found a way to deal with this, and I think I never will.