When i was eight, in order to encourage thrift my mother gave me a small round clay pot, with gaily painted horizontal stripes. The pot had a slit on top through which coins, or folded notes, could be put in.

My daily pocket money was raised from two annas a day to three. Every day, i’d deposit the extra anna into the clay pot, and hear a satisfying chink! as the coin landed on the other coins already there. It was one of the nicest sounds i’d heard. It was the sound of security.

I think of that small clay pot quite often now. And the reason is that there is a persistent rumour doing the rounds that the government is planning to pass a law which will enable banks which are saddled with bad debts of making good those debts by taking away the money of depositors, like you and me.

It’s called a ‘bail-in’, and the way it’s meant to work is that whenever someone like Vijay Mallya does a bunk having defaulted on bank loans, the banks will cover their losses by confiscating your hard-earned savings.

The government has gone on record to say that there is no truth in these rumours. But the more the government denies that it is planning any such move, the more such rumours spread.

Just how safe is the money that we’ve managed to save up somehow – inflation and GST notwithstanding – and put into our bank accounts? Will it one day disappear, leaving us bankrupt, or bank-erupt?

I look at my bank. It seems like a fairly solid, respectable place, not like some shady, hole-in-the-wall outfit that’s going to do a moonlight flit and skedaddle with the few odd bucks that are lying around in my account earning four per cent interest per annum, before tax.

I feel reassured. Then the thought strikes me that the secret of success of a con man is not to look like a con man. The penny drops with a plop! like something going down the drain.

It’s one of the unnicest sounds i’ve ever heard. It’s the sound of insecurity.

I wonder where one could buy a small clay pot with a slit on top. I’ll even make do without the gaily painted stripes.