To not pay the cleaner

[MamaD2207]

We have had a cleaner for about a month and she is absolutely great. Today I had £100 on my bedside table this morning. There is no one else who could have taken it, but there is no evidence it was her. Am I being unreasonable not paying her ?

My mother accused me of stealing some wartime documents when I was about 7/8. I had taken them to school for a show and tell and my mother claimed that I never brought them back - so I must have stolen them or the teachers must have stolen them. I explained where I had put them (in a drawer in my dad's dresser) but she never believed me. The documents went missing in the 1960s and she was still going on about the "theft" of her valuable mementoes to all and sundry around 50 years later.

After she died going through her stuff - guess what we found? (Her documents) Guess where we found them (dad's dresser drawer). This despite her having moved house twice and dad having died 15+ years earlier!

Maybe a lesson for you that if you're that lax with expensive pinchable, easily pocketable possessions, then you need to reconsider inviting people you've not got absolutely trustworthyness for, into your house to provide a service. Tidy up beforehand, get nanny cams etc.

Why would you leave money on a bedside table when you know your cleaner is going to attend that day.

@MamaD2207 has your hubby/partner not lifted it??? have you move the table right out? searched the drawer. under the bed????

Can't you just ask her? I'm sure £100 is nothing compared to a long term cleaning job!!!

I have heard of people deliberately leaving cash about to check the cleaner is trustworthy. However it was £20 not £100!

You can’t immediately sack somebody when you have no proof.

When I was a cleaner part of my agreement was you don't leave money or valuables lying around, and this thread demonstrates why.

I believe it could be the cleaner as I’ve known two to steal things or try to steal!
I trust our cleaner that we have now, but still don’t give her a key! She comes when I wfh.

What's her hourly rate? At £15, that's about 6.5 hours work. Why would someone risk losing a job over roughly a day's pay, when they would have zero guarantee of being able to find an alternative customer to clean for in the same slot?

It’s incredibly commendable that so many of you are so affronted by the idea of someone stealing something out of your homes, really. But it does happen!

In a flatshare once we had an agency cleaner. Over the time she cleaned for us I’d notice some of my clothing wasn’t where I left it- a jumper gone from the airing cupboard, a jacket not hung where I heft it, a nice dress not where I thought it was in the wardrobe. Never had a problem with any previous cleaner. Eventually I stopped assuming I’d misplaced or misremembered things and ask her if she’d seen them around. It was about six things by this point! She said no and I should keep my clothes tidier 🙄

And no it definitely was not my flat mate.

She cancelled cleaning for us after that and hey presto, none of my clothes ever went missing again.

My MIL’s cleaner stole her clothes - she’s an old lady.

Is she an absolute idiot?

Because only some several cards full of the full deck sees £100 left deliberately out in the open, knows they are going to be the first person suspected and takes it anyway.

My £100 is on it turning up somewhere else at some point.

My friend lost a ring. Blamed the builders but didn't say anything. Several years later it turned up when the bathroom was being refurbished. You can't blame her without proof.

Leaving a relatively large sum of money in plain sight isn’t sensible. It’s like people who don’t lock their cars and leave valuables visible in them and are then affronted that their property has been taken by an opportunist.

You are fucking batshit crazy if you think you are entitled to do that. Wow. The gall, op!

That's all you can do.

Well no, it’s not. Because if she finds it either she took it so is dishonest but realises she has been found out, or she is good at finding things but you will never be sure if she found it or “found it”.

You think she took it, so that doubt will always remain.

Search behind the radiators. That is where I find things that go missing ...

Why did you have £100 out on your bedside cabinet?

Is she a one man band or is she part of a company or agency?

Does she make the bed? Could it have been wafted under the sheet or duvet/pillows - I know you said you had already looked.

DH lost a key once - was adamant he left it on bedside table - it was key to our safe, there was a substantial amount of cash in there and our passports, hunted high and low. I made him break into the safe with a sledge hammer because I was completely sure someone had emptied the safe and then took the key. We got a new bed a couple of months ago and there it was when I dismantled the old bed, it was under the bed and im talking the middle of under the bed 😂

Also, my children where little darlings when I left money laying around, was only ever a quid here or there - although SD would take whatever, I used to take my handbag to bed when she stayed, she even took her dads debit card out to the hole in the wall after we had gone to be one night and denied taking out £200 in cash

No you absolutely cannot.
I had a family friend accuse me of stealing something years ago. I’ve no idea what happened to it but it sure as shit wasn’t me. Just because you can’t see it right now or it isn’t there is absolutely no proof it was her and the accusation is devastating.
A friend had a very similar situation a few years ago and found the money a few months later behind a cabinet. They don’t know how it got there but the poor woman who was accuser must have been gutted.

My cleaner (or more likely her teenage daughter who used to "help out") stole some nice skincare stuff out of the bathroom. I couldn't prove it but I asked her where it was and when she couldn't help we decided not to ask her back. I felt guilty but the trust had gone...Over the next few weeks I then realised about £200+ worth of makeup and skincare stuff was missing from my dressing table. I have a good makeup collection! I hadn't noticed at the time because we were living across two houses so I had been assuming something was at the other house whenever I couldn't find it. I couldn't prove it, so I never got closure but I'm glad they don't clean for us anymore.

However, I think £100 out in the open is the last thing a cleaner would steal and it may well turn up.

I had similar. And it was in a hiding place. But i couldn't prove it. Even though i knew. So i paid her and never had her back. What else can you do?!

Why not?
Don't see how its in any way relevant tbh.