She did not want to hire a bank safe deposit box in her own name because she feared he might be able to access it so Balbir and her partner, Parag Malik, opened one in their names.
"We knew him (Balbir) very well and we trusted him enough that we thought we could open the box with him," she said, although she did not tell him what she was keeping in it.
While she was overseas in Singapore, Balbir contacted her to say his grandmother in India was ill and he had to travel there immediately.
When she returned and checked the safety deposit box she found that Balbir had somehow been made the only trustee, and it was empty.
Police intercepted him at Christchurch Airport and found the cash in his luggage and a gold piece, linked to the theft, was found in an airport toilet bowl.
The Crown initially alleged Balbir had stolen $200,000 but this was reduced to $100,000 after a disputed facts hearing in June.
Balbir's lawyer, David Reece, said his client maintained that Mr Malik had been - in part at least - behind the theft. However, police had not investigated him.
"My submission is he's been influenced by, to a degree, this fellow Malik, who's been the shadowy figure in the background."
Judge Cunningham said the suggestion that Balbir was not the only one behind the theft "doesn't seem implausible to me".
"I mean, a young man given control of this box which contained thousands of dollars and a large amount of gold bullion... does to me seem strange.
"I see it as placing a lot of responsibility on him which could almost be seen as putting temptation in his way."
Judge Cunningham considered the victim's conduct as a mitigating factor when passing sentence.
He would have been sentenced to home detention but was living in a hostel, which was not a suitable address.
Balbir had struggled as a new immigrant to New Zealand and prison would be a difficult place for him, she said.
- NZPA
