After breaking into a house in Dalian, Liaoning Province, a burglar headed straight for the kitchen to hide any cutlery that could be used against him as a weapon, in case he got busted.

One of the family members - a woman - woke up hearing a rattle and spotted the intruder escape from the kitchen.

As it turned out, the thief wasn't as courageous as he thought he was smart. He ran miles from the house without stealing a thing, not even the cutlery.

The woman alarmed the rest of the family, who realized the thief had only just broken in and managed to hide a couple of kitchen knives behind a pile of vegetables.

"Everything else was in order," the family said after the incident last week.

(China Daily July 10, 2009)