An earthen pot, supposedly containing mishti, was the calling card of a couple of thieves posing as distant relatives to enter a house and rob it.

The sweet-laced swoop late on Sunday left the Ghoshs in Uttarayan of Naihati with a bitter taste in the mouth, and poorer by Rs 50,000 in cash and jewellery.

According to North 24-Parganas police officers — who admitted that the relatives-with-mishti routine was a novel one — two arrests have been made but the hunt is on.

When Nimai Ghosh, a 62-year-old fish trader, answered the doorbell at 9.45pm, he found two men armed with what looked like a pot of rosogolla, who introduced themselves as “relatives from Ranaghat”.

Ghosh could not recognise the duo, but let them in out of politeness. “As my wife Mridula and I began talking to them, we realised something was wrong. But it was too late. One of them held a revolver to my chest and demanded the keys to the safe. A third youth entered the house and took the keys,” Ghosh recounted.

The goons then gagged the couple, locked them in the bathroom and looted cash and jewellery. Their parting shot: “Kakababu, be careful. We will be back.”

Supratim Sarkar, the superintendent of North 24 Parganas police, termed the robbery “unusual”.