If official excuses are to be believed, Indian rats must be a peculiar variant particularly addicted to narcotics. In recent months, law enforcement agencies in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have claimed in court that rats had spirited away large amounts of seized contraband material. In Jharkhand, rodents were blamed for eating through 200 kg of cannabis that went missing from custody around the turn of the year; they were also blamed last year for drinking through 800 bottles of liquor. Courts must smell the rat through such eyebrow-arching defence and pull up the concerned personnel for incompetence at the very least. Mandating safekeeping in court-monitored stores could also keep the rodents at bay.