Italian police have arrested a 38-year-old man who, while attempting to break into a house in Rome, strangely stopped to read a book about Greek mythology.
The would-be thief gained entry to an elderly homeowner’s residence via the balcony, but did not make it past the victim’s bedside table, where he was distracted by a book about Homer’s Iliad.
The 71-year-old resident woke up and confronted the intruder, who immediately fled. However, authorities later arrested the suspect in the Prati district of Rome.
According to Italian media reports, the arrested man claimed that he had mistakenly entered a building he thought was a guesthouse to visit a friend.
When he was arrested, the man was found to be carrying a bag containing expensive clothing that had allegedly been stolen from another home earlier that evening.
The book that caught the burglar’s attention was “The Gods at Six” by Giovanni Nucci, which explains the Iliad from the perspective of the gods.
When Nucci learned of the incident, he told Il Messaggero: “It’s fantastic.”
He added: “I would like to catch the person red-handed and give him the book because he will probably have been arrested in the middle of reading it. I want him to be able to finish it.”
The author’s conclusion: “It is a surreal story, but also full of humanity.”
