Raja Chor Mantri Sipahi

Shuffled chits

Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi (transl.  King, Minister, thief and soldier) is a type of role-playing game that is a popular pastime in India. It involves four players—each player takes up the role of either the king, Minister , thief or soldier— and the Minister (Mantri) has to guess the identity of the thief. Along with other such games, its popularity has decreased in the 21st century.

Open chits allocated to each player

Rules

The game begins with making 4 chits namely Raja (1000 points), Mantri (800 points), Chor(0 points) and Sipahi (500 points). Each chit is folded-shuffled and distributed among 4 players with each player picking one chit. Players can open their respective chit to find out their character(which shall not be revealed to anybody). The player with the chit containing Raja exclaims “Mera Mantri Kon” which translates to ‘Who is my Minister?’ in English, The Mantri then has to identify the ‘Chor’ from the other 2 remaining players. If the Mantri, guesses correctly then the points are retained or else he/she surrenders them to the Chor. Several rounds of this game are played before counting the points. The player with the highest score wins the game.

Variations:

The chits can be Raja, Rani, Thief, Police. The person with the police chit declares that he is the police and has to find the thief from the other 3 players. If more players are to play the game extra chits like Minister, Soldier are added each with varying points. The King has the highest points followed by the Queen. Points are awarded to the police or thief based on whether the police guesses the identity of the thief correctly.