It’s bad enough to steal, but stealing money that was meant to be donated to people in need is an entirely new low.
A 30-year-old thief, who the police are identifying by his rather unfortunate initials ML, quietly sneaked into a small mosque in Pejagalan, Penjaringan, North Jakarta at 2:30am on Monday.
There, he broke open a money donation box and pocketed Rp 200 thousand in cash.
Luckily, the mosque’s caretaker, Udin, caught the thief red handed.
“Udin tried to reprimand [the thief], but he was scared because the thief pointed a knife at him,” said Bungin M Misalayuk, head of the Crime Investigation Unit at the Penjaringan Police, as quoted by Warta Kota yesterday.
Udin then cried for help, which caught the attention of some locals who ran onto the scene. The angry mob overpowered ML and beat him senseless. The police arrived in time before ML’s beating turned fatal.
ML could face up to 5 years in prison for theft. Ironically, he admitted to stealing from the mosque because he needed money to buy sahur (the early morning meal Muslims eat before they fast during the day) for his family.
