Monkey steals bag containing 50,000 Thai baht and throws it off a cliff

A trouble-making monkey in Srisaket province, northeast Thailand, stole a tourist’s tote bag and launched it off the side of a cliff yesterday after finding nothing edible inside it. A team of park rangers scaled down the cliffside to retrieve the bag, which contained 50,000 baht (US$1,438) in cash.

Park rangers at Khao Phra Wihan National Park received a call from a concerned 55 year old Thai woman at 3pm yesterday. She said a wild monkey grabbed her bag, ransacked it for food, and then threw it off Pha Mor E-Daeng cliff in frustration after finding no snacks.

The tourist begged the park rangers to help her get the bag back because it contained a lot of cash, other valuable assets, and some important documents.

The kind-hearted rangers abseiled down the cliffside to locate the valuable bag. The rangers even livestreamed the mission on Facebook to ensure total transparency given the high value of the assets.

After descending for more than 100 metres, the bag containing all its original assets was found and returned to its owner.

Much to the rangers’ surprise, they found loads more lost property at the bottom of the cliff, suspected to have also been stolen and thrown down by monkeys.

The rangers collected all of the items and said they would work on reuniting them with their owners.

The Chief of Khao Phra Wihan National Park said that the wild monkeys in the area are aggressive and are always snatching stuff from tourists in search of food. Park rangers advise tourists to stay aware at all times and avoid feeding monkeys to stay safe.

Thailand’s monkeys go bananas when they’re hungry. When tourism drew to a standstill during the pandemic, tourist-dependent monkeys in Lop Buri city became ravenous. Soon enough, “monkey wars” erupted, causing chaos in the streets.