A wild elephant was filmed sneaking into a village home in India to steal rice.

Natarajan, a farmer of the Thadagam village in Coimbatore, India, had a problem. Someone was stealing the food. Vegetables, fruits, and grains he would occasionally leave outside his home after harvest would all disappear.

Fed up with the thief, who would sneak in after everyone went to sleep, Natarajan’s family left some rice outside and kept vigil.

To their surprise, the thief turned out to be a well-known wild elephant which roams the neighbourhood, and even has a name, ‘Vinayaka.’

The elephant tip-toed in and reached out to rice kept in a sack with its trunk and started gobbling it.

Like a true thief, it also promptly fled after the alarmed residents made some noise.

A family member said that in its greed to steal rice, the elephant had eaten some fertilizer as well, which was kept next to the sack of grains.

The footage was captured on October 20.

A wild elephant was filmed sneaking in to steal rice from a village home in India.

Natarajan, a farmer of the Thadagam village in Coimbatore, India, had a problem. Someone was stealing the food - vegetables, fruits, grains - he would occasionally leave outside his home after harvest.

Fed up with the thief, who would sneak in after everyone went to sleep, Natarajan’s family left some rice outside and kept vigil.

To their surprise, the thief turned out to be a well-known wild elephant which roams the neighbourhood, and even has a name, ‘Vinayaka.’

The elephant tip-toed in and reached out to rice kept in a sack with its trunk and started gobbling it.

Like a true thief, it also promptly fled after the alarmed residents made some noise.

A family member said that in its greed to steal rice, the elephant had eaten some fertilizer as well, which was kept next to the sack of grains.