One night a thief entered the room of Josephine MacLeod [Joe], an American devotee of Swamiji, who was staying in the guest house of Belur Math. When the thief grabbed her locket reliquary, which contained Vivekananda’s hair, Joe woke up and shouted. Swami Punyananda and some others were staying downstairs. They hurriedly ran and caught the thief at the head of the stairs. Punyananda gave him a good beating, tied him with a rope, and took him to the veranda of the Math building.
In those days every morning Shivananda would walk through the Math compound inspecting everything, especially the dairy. On his way that morning, Shivananda saw the thief and said to him jokingly: “Look, is this a place where one should come to steal? If these boys take turns beating you, you will die.” The swami left after saying this.
After a while Shivananda returned from his rounds and began eating his breakfast. Then Joe entered his room and informed the swami: “Mahapurush Maharaj, you have heard that a thief entered my room; I think he is a devotee. Otherwise why would he take my locket leaving so many things in the room? You know, that locket is a reliquary containing Swamiji’s hair. I believe his devotion for Swamiji was the motive for stealing it.” Childlike, Shivananda at once believed the words of Joe. He asked Punyananda to release the thief, take him to the Ganges, and make sure that he had a bath and changed into the new cloth that he had sent for him. When Shivananda’s orders were carried out, the thief went to bow down before Shivananda. The swami affectionately asked him: “Hello, would you like to become a monk?” Although the thief’s answer was unrecorded, his mind undoubtedly carried this memory throughout his life. (Source: God Lived with Them)