SINGAPORE - A Myanmar domestic worker was jailed for two weeks and 30 months respectively on Wednesday, for theft and for trying to hurt her employer by putting a corrosive substance into a kettle used to store drinking water.

Khin Aye Sein, 24, was working for Madam Lim Khee Koon, 59, in Holland Grove View when she committed the two offences in February this year.

A district court heard that Aye Sein stole $90 from Madam Lim's wallet on Feb 4 and hid the money in the sole of her slipper.

On Feb 17, Madam Lim went to the market after making soup for her two-year-old grandson.

When she returned about an hour later, she made some tea but it turned black and there was an unusual smell.

She then poured water from the electric kettle and noted that there were a lot of bubbles.

Worried, she checked on the soup and found that it smelled bad; soup was black, too. There were also white crystals on the inner surface of the pot.

She told her son later that day and then called the police.

Investigations showed that some time that morning, Aye Sein had put some drainpipe cleaner into the electric kettle, knowing that it would hurt the victim as the kettle was used to store drinking water .

Aye Sein told police that she did it to make the victim angry, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Wuan. Asked by the court why she did it, she said that her employer nagged at her.

A Health Sciences Authority report said that the cleaner was found to contain corrosive chemicals that could damage skin as well as mucous membranes such as the mouth and stomach lining.

Aye Sein could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for theft and punished with up to five years' jail and fined for the other charge.