THIS will not be of any relevance to honest readers of The Economist, of course, but a company in America has come up with a way to stop hotel guests from stealing linens. The radio-frequency identification chips designed by Linen Technology Tracking can be put in towels, sheets and bathrobes to keep track of stock and, more importantly, to ensure their return when light-fingered guests forget their manners.

The market for such items sounds well developed. CNN quoted William Serbin of Linen Technology Tracking saying, "Any given month, [hotels] can lose 5 to 20 percent of towels, sheets and robes." And the economies to be made from the tags, which will work through 300 washes, also sound rather impressive. One of the three hotels using them is reportedly saving $16,000 a month by reducing the number of pool towels stolen from 4,000—an almost unbelievable 130 a day—to 750.