In an unusual turn of events, a thief in Rome was so engrossed in a book that he momentarily forgot his criminal intentions. The 38-year-old suspect had broken into an apartment in the Prati district through a balcony but became fixated on a book about Homer’s Iliad, Giovanni Nucci’s *The Gods at Six O’Clock*, which he found on the bedside table. Despite the homeowner, a 71-year-old, confronting him, the thief was so absorbed in reading that he seemed oblivious to his surroundings. He was eventually caught trying to flee through the same balcony.
Giovanni Nucci, the book’s author, was thrilled by the news. “It’s fantastic. I’d like to find the person caught red-handed and give him the book because he’ll have been arrested halfway through reading it. I’d like him to be able to finish it,” Nucci told *Il Messaggero*.
The thief claimed to the police that he had climbed the balcony intending to visit a friend and had mistaken the apartment for a bed and breakfast. “I thought I had ended up in a B&B, saw the book, and started to read it,” he told BBC. He was also found with a bag containing expensive clothing stolen from another location earlier that evening.
In a related incident, a thief in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, fell asleep while robbing a house in June. The intoxicated burglar, who had broken in and stolen items, turned on the air conditioner and dozed off, only to be arrested by police the next morning. The house belonged to Dr. Sunil Pandey, who was away on official duty.