A group of youths here tried to con an eatery to dodge the food bill by placing a bone in a plate of vegetable biryani.
The con was unravelled when CCTV footage revealed the truth.
While police intervened in the matter, no formal proceedings have been initiated in the case as there has been no complaint, an officer said.
The incident took place on the night of July 31 at the Biryani Bay restaurant at Shastri Chowk in the Cantonment Police Station area.
A group of 8 to 10 young men came to the eatery and placed orders for both veg and non-veg biryani. Shortly after their meal was served, one of them cried that there was a bone in his veg biryani.
The restaurant manager called the police, who placated the patrons and called for the CCTV footage from the eatery.
The footage showed one of the youths handing a bone to the other, who then discreetly placed it into the veg biryani plate, said restaurant owner Ravikar Singh.
He also insisted there is no chance of "contamination" as in his kitchen, meat is cooked separately.
"They clearly wanted to avoid paying the bill, which was around Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000. Their actions were completely deliberate," Singh told the police.
Cantonment Circle Officer Yogendra Singh said, "Legal action is underway."
(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)