Government workers arrived at 10 PM to count households. The households, reasonably, concluded the government had sent thieves.
Census workers dispatched to Hasnabad village in Bihar's East Champaran district arrived at approximately 10 PM on a Sunday, woke residents who were already asleep, and began asking how many people lived in each household. The residents, having received no advance notice and finding strangers at their doors in the dark, reached what appeared to them the most natural conclusion: a robbery. A commotion broke out across the village. Officials subsequently clarified the visitors were government employees rather than thieves — a distinction that Hasnabad village is still evaluating. The census workers have not explained their scheduling rationale, though it is understood that no one was counting.