​Bekasi citizens smell mysterious luwak coffee aroma, suspect a tuyul has been stealing their money

An artist’s impression of a tuyul.

Citizens of Sukahurip Village in Bekasi are complaining about a recent wave of money thefts in the village. At the moment, they’re blaming it on a tuyul.

For those of you unfamiliar with Indonesian folklore, the tuyul is a supernatural creature that closely resembles a toddler, only it usually has green or grey skin, big red eyes, pointy ears and rows of sharp teeth. It’s often kept by people as pets and ordered to perform mischief such as stealing from other people.

The Sukahurip villagers are speculating that a tuyul has been stealing their money because lately they’ve been smelling the aroma of luwak coffee every night from 10pm to 3am from a mysterious source. They say that this is a telltale sign for the presence of a tuyul.

“There has been money, up to tens of thousands of rupiah, even up to hundreds of thousands, that has gone missing. The locals are bothered by these events,” said local man Ahmad, as quoted by Berita Satu yesterday. 

Despite a strong belief in the supernatural amongst many Indonesians, authorities are looking for a scientific explanation behind the luwak coffee smell.

“Did the smell come from factory waste or from other sources? We’re still looking into it,” said the head of Bekasi National and Political Unity Body, Ahmad Kosasih.

While there’s really no evidence to support either the supernatural or scientific reasoning, we have to say there are worse smells to surround a village every night than the heavenly aroma of luwak coffee.

And if there’s a lot of money missing in the village, they might want to look for actual human thieves in the village before blaming it on the tuyul.