A suspected thief in Rome was arrested when, during a robbery at a nursing home, he stopped to read a book on Greek mythology, according to Italian media.
The 38-year-old man is said to have entered an apartment in the Prati neighborhood of the Italian capital through a balcony, but became distracted after picking up a book of Homer’s Iliad from the bedside table.
The 71-year-old owner reportedly woke up and confronted the alleged thief, who was engrossed in the book.
News of the failed invasion caught the attention of the book’s author, Giovanni Nucci, who told local media he wanted to send the man a copy to “finish” reading it.
“It’s fantastic. I would like to find the person caught red-handed and give him the book, because he will be caught in the middle of reading it. I wish he could finish it. It’s a surreal story, full of humanity,” the author of The Gods at Six O’Clock, which analyses the Iliad from the perspective of the gods, told Il Messaggero (via BBC).
He also mentioned that his favorite god is Hermes, the patron saint of thieves and also of literature. “It’s clear, anything goes,” he joked.
After being caught by surprise, the thief tried to escape from the same balcony, but was caught shortly after. He reportedly told police that he went up to the building to visit an acquaintance while in possession of a bag containing expensive clothes that had been stolen from another house that night.