Two young men were caught by police as they struggled to flee with a 30-kilogram bag of one-yuan coins they had stolen from their boss at a restaurant in Qingdao, a coastal city of Shandong Province.

The men, surnamed Gao and Ding from Shaanxi and Hebei provinces, broke into the restaurant through the window at about 2:00 am on Tuesday. They planned to take all the 15,000 yuan (US$1,973.7) in coins but found they were unable to carry the bag. Reluctantly they took out coins until they could lift it.

A passerby called the police at 5:00 a.m. when he saw the two men "hurrying along with a suspicious bag which tinkled", according to local police.

Police said they found the pair "puffing and sweating on the side of the road beside a huge bag full of one-yuan coins on their way to the railway station". Police retrieved 5,647 yuan from the bag.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2007)