JEDDAH, 14 August 2005 — Rats have been the cause of major losses in the youth welfare office in Jeddah, reported Al-Watan newspaper. They destroyed vital papers containing calculations that had not been put into the computer system and other essential papers belonging to citizens. The manager of the office was shocked during a departmental inspection when he found a storeroom full of rats. They had destroyed just about everything inside, leaving only shredded paper and a few files. The manager had arranged for it to be tidied up. This storeroom, which had been neglected for some time, held many fundamental papers worth millions of Saudi riyals. Some of the documents were contracts between companies — all these were lost thanks to the rodents. He punished a number of the workers in the office believing this happened as a result of idleness. The rats, he thought, seemed to work harder than the employees.
