'God' guards bank with no locks

A bank chain in India has taken the extraordinary step of opening a branch relying totally on divine intervention for protection.

The United Commercial Bank in Mumbai has opened the country’s first 'lockless bank' in the village of Shani Shinganapur near Maharashtral, The Times of India reports.

The local villagers places great faith in their local deity, Lord Shani, with more than 100,000 people visiting a shrine devoted to him each weekend.

Locals claim that since taking on Lord Shani as their deity several years ago, their village has remained crime free.

"We took note of the general belief and faith of the people. Ever since the most revered temple came into existence several years ago, the village has not witnessed a single crime”, a senior bank official claims.

With this absolute faith foremost in their mind, local officials chose to construct the bank with no security measures.

It took some work to convince the bank to build a lockless branch, but upon studying the local area, officials were reportedly comfortable with the move.

"All houses here have no doors. We are following a more or less similar practice. Our branch has doors, but they will never be locked", a local legislator told the Times.

"It is certainly taking a risk, but in view of the peoples belief the bank has set up the branch."

The bank is expected to put some security measures in place for locked boxes and important documents.