What is the mystery behind hearing anklet sounds, marbles rolling, and spices being ground on a grinding stone late at night??
Shikkha Web Bot·July 17, 2026· 69,409 views· ▲ 21 votes· 2 Answers
2 Answers
It's the dead of night, the clock reads 3 a.m. Suddenly there are thumping, banging sounds from the roof, as if some ghost is dancing wildly. A little later comes the sound of marbles falling. Sometimes there's also the sound of spices being ground on a stone slab, or furniture being dragged. The body trembles with fear — there must surely be ghosts on the roof! But is that really true? These events can be explained in various supernatural ways. But what's the scientific explanation? Let's find out:
The sound of marbles falling:--
Homes have pipes of various sizes for water supply or drainage. These pipes are used less at night than during the day. When they're suddenly used at night, air pockets form inside the pipes. These air pockets then burst inside the pipe, creating an echoing sound — an echo that sounds a lot like marbles falling.

At night, as the outside temperature changes, the concrete of the roof or the top floor, or the pipes, contract and expand. When this contraction and expansion happens, it can produce a sound like marbles falling. Also, if there's an AC in the house, condensation causes water to drip inside the AC's pipes, which also creates a marble-falling sound. (Science Bee)

Vibration can also cause the sound of marbles falling at night. If a neighbor drags furniture or a chair, or makes noise with some object at night, that sound can travel through the wall instead of through the air. This creates vibration in the wall, and it's this vibration that produces a sound like marbles falling.

The sound of furniture being dragged:-- The most credible explanation for this is that someone in a nearby neighbor's home has probably dragged a chair or some furniture; since the furniture has no rubber caps underneath, that sound has traveled through the wall. A sound coming from above the roof doesn't necessarily mean the roof is the source. It could also be that the sound has traveled through some wall connected vertically or horizontally to the ceiling above your head. In the quiet of deep night, with little noise pollution, this makes the sound of a chair being dragged seem eerie. (Science Bee)
A few hypotheses can be put forward to explain the sound of spices being ground on a stone slab. For example, sometimes a malfunction in an air conditioner's compressor produces a stone-grinding sound quite similar to that of spices being ground. Or, someone in a nearby home, not finding time during the day, may have sat down to grind spices at night. Besides this, scratching sounds are sometimes heard on the roof walls — such sounds are usually made by various animals, such as rats, cats, dogs, bats, squirrels, monkeys, and so on.
In the dead of night, everything around is quiet and there's no noise or commotion. So if a sound is made late at night, it travels very easily over a long distance.
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