The policemen are themselves the greatest thieves in Kabul, and take anything they can get, great or small; but they become most indignant when they see others stealing, considering it, perhaps, an encroachment on their privileges. In going along the bazar a policeman will take a handful of grain or fruit from a shop as he passes and eat it, and the shopkeeper must say nothing. If a shopkeeper should make a fuss over anything a policeman does in that way, it is more than probable that a case will be trumped up against him very shortly afterwards, and if there is nothing else to accuse him of, he is accused of giving short weight, and as there are few correctly made sets of metal weights in Kabul, those there are being made and used in the Government workshops and stores, the shopkeepers have to take stones of different sizes, and after matching them against the Government weights use them for weighing out the articles they deal in. These stones are therefore readily changed by the policeman for others lying on the street, when taking a shopkeeper through the bazars to the Kotwal for trial, and when such convincing evidence is forthcoming, the shopkeeper is of course heavily fined, and for the future treats a Kotwali sepoy with every respect. In most of the robberies committed in Kabul, some of the Kotwali sepoys are concerned, their duties as policemen enabling them to mark the most likely shop or house, and also to obtain correct information of the movements of the people in them. The Kotwali guards at the different stations are supposed to be changed every two weeks; but when on guard at those places which give little work for them, or where they can more readily add to their income, they endeavour to be kept on there, and those who possess the favour of the Kotwal, manage to do this at times. These sepoys are the men employed by the Kotwal in the carrying out of executions and punishments, and those who happen to be on guard at the time are appointed for the work. Some of the younger sepoys are very sick after assisting in some horrible punishment, but use hardens them, and after a time they become callous to suffering in others, in some cases even to the extent of gloating over the death or tortures they are ordered to inflict on some miserable wretch.