In a bizarre yet tragic turn of events, frustrated farmers in Pakki Kalan village have issued a public appeal directly to thieves, offering to transfer money via UPI rather than having their agricultural tubewell motors stolen.The desperate measure follows an overnight raid in which thieves dismantled and stole 25 motors from village fields.Having lost all faith in the local police and government authorities to curb the recurring seasonal menace, the farmers collectively designed a poster that has since gone viral on social media. In the poster, the farmers make a direct and unprecedented plea to the thieves. They explain that losing their motors during the peak paddy transplanting season causes immense mental agony and completely derails their crop cycle. Rather than having their machinery destroyed and sold as scrap for a fraction of its value, the farmers have invited the thieves to leave a note with a UPI QR code or bank account details at the tubewell sites. In return, they promise to transfer the equivalent value of the motor directly to the thieves’ accounts, asking only that the machinery be left intact.“We are completely helpless. The government and the police have failed to protect us year after year. Our livelihood depends on these crucial weeks of paddy sowing. If our motors are stolen, our entire season’s plan is shattered. We would rather pay the thieves through UPI to spare our equipment than face the mental trauma and the loss of our crops,” said distressed farmers Beant Singh, Mithu Singh, Gurbinder Singh, Hardeep Singh, and Pritam Singh, all of whom lost motors in the overnight raid.While the sarcastic protest has taken social media by storm, it highlights a crumbling law and order situation across Faridkot’s rural belt.Police authorities said that when members of these gangs are nabbed, some stolen motors are recovered from junk dealers, where they are sold as scrap after being damaged.Beyond the economic toll, fear has gripped the farming community. The thieves operate in organised groups of 10 to 12 men and are known to carry weapons, making resistance highly dangerous.“Earlier, farmers or their labourers would sleep overnight in small rooms next to the motor pumps to guard their property. Today, fields sit abandoned after dark,” said local farmer Simranjit Singh Brar.“Both farmers and labourers are completely terrorised. No one dares to stay at the motor rooms anymore. Trying to resist a group of 10 to 12 armed men could easily result in severe physical harm or loss of life, which is a far greater tragedy than a stolen motor,” he added. “We prepared this poster and posted it on social media to express our helplessness.”