O

em>Oh, the slippers are cute!

You'€™re not seriously taking them home?

The mini flower pot is adorable, too.

You'€™re already taking home the slippers! Please limit yourself to one item to steal from the hotel.

This happened early this year when some friends and I spent New Year'€™s Eve in a new, small hotel downtown. Technically, it was a budget business hotel, but the hotel slippers were washable, anti-slip, purple-black and in a flip-flop style. Of course I had to take them home.

A friendly argument soon ensued about which things typically considered standard amenities were included in the hotel room rate. The general consensus was that toiletries and stationery would be, whereas electronic appliances and reusable items like towels, bathrobe, dressing gown and bedding wouldn'€™t be.

Although technically, and this is the cost accounting devil speaking, if the liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner are placed in refillable containers, only the contents may well be included as variable costs in a room rate whereas the containers themselves may go to capital expenditure. Just as slippers are reusable so, yes, I guess I did start the New Year with a petty crime.

Back in my corporate days with multinational companies, I traveled quite extensively and sometimes had to share a room with a colleague. Multinationals tend to book their employees into nice hotels, so I'€™ve stayed in enough five-star hotels to appreciate the kind of amenities provided within.

We once got to stay in one of Singapore'€™s fanciest hotels for a week that provided expensive L'€™Occitane toiletries and some of my colleagues actually packed the slightly used mini bottles every night so chambermaids would replenish them with brand new bottles the day after. Bold, I'€™d say.

Another stay was at a lovely hotel that still engraved your full name on the stationery. Most of the people on the trip pocketed them, but I used mine to write and mail out letters every day. It felt old school, to pen a letter on paper and envelope that bore my name in gold lettering. Cute, I had to admit.

But those examples are harmless, of course, compared to things I know some people have boldly and shamelessly committed. The top stolen items are silky dressing gowns and plush terry-cloth bathrobes, plug converters, fancy clothes hangers and unhooked hair dryers and irons (although I'€™ve yet to hear of an ironing board being stolen).

Don'€™t think that only upscale hotels suffer from kleptomaniac guests. I once stayed in a modest B&B in New England'€™s countryside known for pretty decorations and quilted floral blankets, each painstakingly stitched by the owner and which got stolen from time to time.

The owner told me that she'€™d even caught some of the thieving guests buying extra luggage just to pack the blanket. The B&B was run only by the couple and very few staff, so they often didn'€™t get to check the room upon a guest'€™s checkout. I felt so sorry for them '€” can you imagine the long hours needed to hand sew each of those fluffy blankets? '€” that I told them to hand sew a price tag on each blanket with a note saying that the amount would be charged to the guest'€™s credit card afterward if the blanket was ever removed.

Yet, the cherry on top goes to Ross from the very popular sitcom Friends, who was featured in one episode stuffing so many items from a B&B into his suitcase that the overflowing suitcase burst open in the lobby as he was leaving '€” revealing toiletries, appliances, stationery, newspapers, bath towels and even a lampshade, if my memory serves me right.

No, I don'€™t know why people go to such extremes. Perhaps it'€™s mostly due to the feeling of entitlement that one has paid for the room and its contents. Maybe because mementos from a great trip aren'€™t enough without some souvenirs from the hotel room. Or, possibly, simply, because some people have green eyes and sticky fingers.

I'€™m not going to point fingers, though, since this past weekend, and I can'€™t believe I'€™m making a confession in a major newspaper, I snatched another pair of flip-flops. This time they were all white with clear straps, and from a posh resort at the foot of Menoreh hills, near Borobudur temple. This time my travel companions were a bit more nonchalant and actually reminded me about the flip-flops as we were checking out.

My parents read my columns, so I can only imagine the look on Dad'€™s face and what he will say the next time I see him, which I guarantee may be somewhere along the line of '€œAfter all the education, some of which I paid for in hard-earned foreign currency, you now have a promising career as a hotel slipper thief'€.

Now, it'€™s your turn! Some of you might be spending Valentine'€™s and Chinese New Year in hotels. Please, oh please, share here what you steal from these establishments. Maybe, if many of you comment, Dad will see that I'€™m alone on this path. Help me out?