Employee has stolen cash and accepted the offence

Cashier and one more staff at restaurant stole Rs.40000 approx and ran away. He is negotiating to settle his and the other guy’s salary for the 15 days in February to retrieve money back. At this point we are thinking of letting go of the money as the guy may not return it or he will just negotiate further to bring to 40k and try not to return any sum. What should we do? Any thoughts.. Should we take the assistance of Cops? The guy on the left in the 3rd photo.