In an example of Gandhigiri, a man fed sandesh and rosogollas to two petty thieves who were caught red-handed while stealing valuable items from his house at Kamardanga village in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district.

The two teenage thieves, Bablu Mistry and Tapas Das, had sneaked into Jayanta Gutpa's house by breaking open a rear window Monday. Gupta was away in Kolkata where he works at the NSC Bose International Airport.

As the duo got busy picking up utensils, watches, clothes and electronic items from the house, their movements alerted neighbour Renuka Pal who was bathing in the pond in the rear of the house.

Pal gathered the villagers and caught the two thieves with the booty. The villagers beat the two miscreants black and blue and tied them up before informing Gupta.

But the situation changed when Gupta rushed home from Kolkata Monday evening.

'I felt very sympathetic to them because of their age. And they claimed that it was their first crime, which they had committed because they do not get two square meals a day,' Gupta said.

He untied the teenagers and treated them to sandesh, rosogolla, banana and bread before setting them free.

'But before that, I also told them about the perils of going the wrong way. They listened to me intently,' he said.