The homeowner reportedly woke up and confronted the suspect, engrossed in the book.
A would-be burglar in Rome was arrested after he took a break in the middle of a robbery to read a book on Greek mythology, Italian media reports. The 38-year-old is said to have entered an apartment in the Prati district of the Italian capital via a balcony, but was distracted when he found a book about Homer’s Iliad on a bedside table. BBC reported.
The 71-year-old homeowner reportedly woke up and confronted the suspect, engrossed in the book.
News of the botched robbery caught the attention of the book’s author, who told local media that he would send the man a copy so he could “finish reading” his book.
After being surprised by the homeowner, the suspected thief attempted to flee the scene by escaping via the same balcony, but was arrested shortly after. He reportedly told police he climbed into the building to visit someone he knew, saying: “I thought I’d ended up in a B&B, saw the book and started reading it.”
Giovanni Nucci, author of The Gods at Six O’Clock, which explores the Iliad from the perspective of the gods, told Il Messaggero: “It’s fantastic. I would like to find the person who was caught red-handed and give him the book because he was probably arrested halfway through reading it. I want him to be able to finish it. It’s a surreal story, but also full of humanity.”
The thief also reportedly had a bag of valuable clothing that had allegedly been stolen from another home earlier in the evening. Mr Nucci, whose favourite god is Hermes – the god of thieves and literature – said: “It all makes sense now.”
