# 1 gurkha, 40 bandits, no problem **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 8, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658 "2011-02-08T16:17:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/21 "2011-02-09T04:06:07Z")
The story may be apocryphal but during WWII a company of Gurkhas were to be attached to an SAS regiment and parachute into some fracas or other. You have to volunteer to jump of course, and only half of the company did so – a shockingly low figure. After a discussion, when the company was assured they would be _issued parachutes_ before they jumped, the rest volunteered as well. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/22 "2011-02-09T04:09:47Z")
It’s a great story. However, consider [this account of the robbery from the Times of India](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Soldier-takes-on-dacoits-on-trainGang-Of-30/articleshow/6488820.cms). Still very heroic to resist and to go down swinging, even if you don’t win. And the Gurkhas certainly have a fantastic reputation for bravery and esprit du corps. > [@](#): > > Strangely, railway staff on the train said they were not aware that passengers had been robbed till they reached Chittaranjan. is a tasty bit of black comedy. Searching through the Times’ website to find this account, I found multiple accounts of this sort of thing and thereby got the impression that having bandits stick up the train with the connivance of the train workers is not all that uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/23 "2011-02-09T04:45:26Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Although some of the bandits had pistols, they were either fake (a common ploy in India), inoperable, or handled by a man who didn’t want to get too close to an angry Gurkha. > > Best line in the story. Eh, doesn’t really make sense. The point of a pistol is not having to get too close. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/24 "2011-02-09T08:41:42Z")
Of course it does. Angry man with the knife wants to gut you like a pig. The pistol keeps him over there instead of over here. Sure, I guess a guy with a pistol could have shot shot the Gurkha, but then he’s got an _even angrier_ Gurkha with bullet holes rushing him in an enclosed box car. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/25 "2011-02-09T12:09:59Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Of course it does. Angry man with the knife wants to gut you like a pig. The pistol keeps him over there instead of over here. Sure, I guess a guy with a pistol could have shot shot the Gurkha, but then he’s got an _even angrier_ Gurkha with bullet holes rushing him in an enclosed box car. And as The Simpsons taught us, bulletholes only make him more streamlined. He’ll be running at you _with less wind resistance_. Also, the concept of not being “too close” to a Gurkha who is angry at you is an obvious fallacy. If he is angry at you, _you are already too close._ ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/26 "2011-02-09T13:14:27Z")
Source: [myRepublica - The New York Times Partner, Latest news of Nepal in English, Latest News Articles](http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=27132) > [@](#): > > KATHMANDU, Jan 13: The government on Thursday decided to provide special honor to the Indian Gorkha soldier who fought as many as 40 bandits in a train with nothing but a khukuri, and thwarted them from robbing passengers and raping a minor. > > “He will be provided a special honor for doing Nepal proud at international stage,” Finance Minister Surendra Raj Pandey said after the cabinet meeting on Thursday. Good for him. In my country (and probably many other countries as well), they would have convicted him for excessive violence and premediated murder. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/27 "2011-02-09T13:23:08Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Eh, doesn’t really make sense. The point of a pistol is not having to get too close. In a train full of people (some of those Indian trains run at way over full capacity), your choice would be shooting at him from very close or shooting at him through a throng of bodies and several pieces of train - you run out of bullets, he runs out of space. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/28 "2011-02-09T15:07:31Z")
ITS A TRAP ! THERES ONE OF HIM ! I’ve worked with Gurkhas and they’re true gentlemen, cook a mean curry too. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/29 "2011-02-09T15:24:59Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Of course it does. Angry man with the knife wants to gut you like a pig. The pistol keeps him over there instead of over here. Sure, I guess a guy with a pistol could have shot shot the Gurkha, but then he’s got an _even angrier_ Gurkha with bullet holes rushing him in an enclosed box car. I think Rudyard Kipling mentions in one or another of his short stories the heavy sheepskin coats the Gurkhas were prone to wearing, which offer a surprising amount of protection against low- to medium-caliber gunshots. Add to that a police study I read about somewhere. If an officer was attacked by a man with drawn knife, if the knifeman was twenty-one feet away or less, he could usually get to the officer before the officer could draw and shoot. In the general milling and chaos of a fight in a train car, with a pissed-off Gurkha with a big sharp knife coming at you down a narrow aisle, with lots of dead and bleeding people screaming around you and trying to get the hell away from the guy who is carving them into bite-sized morsels? I would be tempted to get the hell out of Dodge myself, pistol or no. If the Indian Army doesn’t have an award called the Order of the Cantaloupe-Sized Testicles, they need to start it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/30 "2011-02-09T15:34:03Z")
For those who have never handled a real khukuri, they are a wonder of cutlery design. To get better chopping performance, you have to move up to something like an axe; but an axe is slower and less versatile. Now, put one of these fearsome implements in the hand of a man who is skilled in its use. Further, make that man the brassballed desendent of a culture that prizes brassballedness. Those dacoits never stood a chance. I’ve never been one of those people who names weapons, but I think I may start calling my own khukuri “Bishnu” in honor of this man’s courage. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/31 "2011-02-09T15:44:04Z")
This is the most uplifting story I’ve read in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/32 "2011-02-09T15:49:26Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > One to forty? He had them outnumbered. “Don’t fuck with a Gurkha” is right there in the manual, next to the bit about a land war in Asia. " If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha." My edged weapons instructor was a former consultant/trainer for the Singapore Police Force on edged weapon combat. While he was impressed with the professionalism of the SPF overall, he mentioned several times that the Ghurka Contingent (a unit of specifically Nepalese recruits, roughly equivalent to GSG-9, CO-19, or FBI HRT in mission and capability) were especially disciplined and fearless. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/33 "2011-02-09T16:05:54Z")
In the stategypage link, the ghurka didnt want to fight but was compelled to when the bandits threatened to rape the girl, and the bandits were 40. In the India Times story, the ghurka attacked from the get go and the bandits were 30. In the strategypage story, the guy owerpowers the bandits, in the India Times story he gets owerpowered (which is strange, since the bandits flee right after. That’s more than weird). In one story the girl is threatened with rape and is 18 years old, in the other she’s 8, and it’s her mother’s belongings the bandits are after. This story has the smell of bullshit all over it.I’m sure it’s based on something real but the tall tale machine has been cranked to the max, it seems. BTW, on the strategypage link we get this: > [@](#): > > As far as beheading goes, the Taliban often do that on living victims, which even horrifies Afghan warriors. That’s because Gurkhas have been fighting Afghans for centuries, in the service of Britain or Indian princes. Gurkhas, who tend to be Hindus, featured prominently in an Indian effort to stop Moslem armies from entering India 1,300 years ago, and pushing the Moslems out of Kandahar (which was then an Indian border town). Why do they write moslems?? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/34 "2011-02-09T16:30:49Z")
Same reason they write Gurkha/Ghurka/Ghurkha and Bishnu Sresha/Vichnu Shrestha it’s often quite difficult to translate certain sounds into English letters. I sent the story to my Dad, a West Point Grad and Airborne Ranger. He responded simply: “Gurkha always wins.” ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/35 "2011-02-09T16:35:48Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > ITS A TRAP ! THERES ONE OF HIM ! > > I’ve worked with Gurkhas and they’re true gentlemen, cook a mean curry too. My dad served with several in China. He always said they were the nicest gentlemen he ever knew. They frightened the shit out of him constantly. But they were the nicest gentlemen he ever knew. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Any\_Other\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Any\_Other\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Any_Other_Name)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/36 "2011-02-09T18:01:05Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Great story! > > [http://www.logiccool.com/img/upload/bishnu-shrestha-nepali-gorkha-who-subdued-40-train-robbers.jpg](http://www.logiccool.com/img/upload/bishnu-shrestha-nepali-gorkha-who-subdued-40-train-robbers.jpg) I was expecting a hulking big guy with a handlebar mustache, in a sheepskin coat. He looks so young, all the more impressive in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![NCDane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecccb3/32.png) [@NCDane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NCDane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/37 "2011-02-09T18:01:20Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > This guy has a big, brass pair. > > I just have to share this. Forty bandits trying to rob a train in India were chased off by [a single knife-wielding gurkha](http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htinf/articles/20110203.aspx), who killed three and wounded eight while fighting in the aisles of the passenger cars. The gurkha was protecting a young girl from rape. All India has been celebrating this guy for months. > > Looks like there’s some justice in this world after all. > > Damn, I feel good today. Bravo. This man is truly heroic. Unfortunately, if something like this happened in the US, the hero would be lucky to stay escape a jail sentence. I mean, you aren’t supposed to just _kill_ someone, even if he is commiting armed robbery, rape, or whatever. He would also be 100% sure to be financially ruined because the 40 bandits, dead or alive, would be the source of 40 lawsuits total. Not only that, but plaintiff attorneys now have the process of selecting clueless, yo-yo, bleeding heart juries down pat to such an art and science that the bandits might even win most of the suits. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/38 "2011-02-09T18:13:49Z")
> [@NCDane](#): > > Bravo. This man is truly heroic. > > Unfortunately, if something like this happened in the US, > the hero would be lucky to stay escape a jail sentence. > I mean, you aren’t supposed to just _kill_ someone, even > if he is commiting armed robbery, rape, or whatever. > > He would also be 100% sure to be financially ruined because > the 40 bandits, dead or alive, would be the source of 40 lawsuits > total. Not only that, but plaintiff attorneys now have the process > of selecting clueless, yo-yo, bleeding heart juries down pat to > such an art and science that the bandits might even win most > of the suits. The US has such a huge, complex patchwork of state and local laws addressing the carrying of weapons that a US citizen carrying a khukuri about with him would really be taking his chances legally even without actually using it against a bandit. Knives are one of the areas where things really get goofy too, as ill-defined terms like “dagger” or “bowie” or “dirk” are often used in the laws. Even in the areas where there may be no specific law against going out in public wearing a large edged weapon, one still attracts a lot of attention from LE . ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/39 "2011-02-09T18:17:49Z")
In S.M. Stirling’s book The Peshawar Lancers a Gurkha dies a hero when, in order to protect his principal, he fends off a pursuing mob. Sure, it’s fiction, but the few Gurkha characters I’ve ever seen in literature have _always_ been the good guys. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658/40 "2011-02-09T18:25:54Z")
Very cool. If the story is even only half-true, he’s my new hero. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-gurkha-40-bandits-no-problem/570658.md?page=3)