While the rest of society is looking for smarter and tougher security to protect their homes, a village in Ahmadnagar district of the Maharashtra state, India, named Shani Shingnapur has houses and shops with no locks or doors—be it day or night. Shani Shingnapur is home to nearly 4,000 people and all the houses in this village do not have doors or locks. You’ll just find the door frame. This is because of the villager’s immense and undying faith in the Hindu deity, Shani Dev (Lord of the planet Saturn). According to villagers, Lord Shani watches over the village and protects them from the evil eye.
It is said that whoever attempts to steal here will immediately be punished with mental imbalance, blindness or long sickness, and whoever does anything wrong or dishonest will suffer from Sade-Sati, a period of seven-and-a-half years of bad luck—either through an accident, death, or bankruptcy. According to the local folklore, once, a villager tried to put wooden panes at the entrance of his house, and the very next day, he died in a car accident. According to the legends, about 400 years ago, due to incessant rains, a slab of black stone washed up on the banks of the Panasnala River and a local shepard dreamed that the god Shiva came to him and said that the slab of black stone was his own idol.
The shepherd was instructed to install the idol in the village center since then, the whole village got rid of all the locks and doors, leaving their money and jewelry unsecured, with a belief that Lord Shani is watching them and will keep them protected. In fact, the post office and shops in this village also do not have doors. In 2011, the UCO bank opened a lockless branch in Shani Shingnapur, the first of its kind in India. However, the bank has a glass entrance and a remote-controlled electromagnetic lock that is hardly visible, thus maintaining the traditional belief. In 2015, a police station opened in the area, again with no doors. The crime rate in this village is near zero.