Robbery victim consoles thief in New York

Jun 4, 2009, 0:10 GMT

New York - Role reversal at gun point: After an attempted robbery of a store near New York City, the owner showed generous mercy instead of calling the police.

The thief came charging into the convenience store in Long Island shortly before closing armed with a baseball bat and demanded money, according to the security videotape broadcast Wednesday on US television.

As the store owner, Mohammad Sohail, pulled out a rifle - it wasn't even loaded - the would-be thief collapsed to his knees.

'He started begging,' Mohammad Sohail, the store owner, told television crews. The thief said 'I got no money, my family hungry,' Sohail said.

Sohail gave the thief bread and 40 dollars, and the masked thief said, 'I want to be a Muslim just like you,' Sohail told CNN.

Sohail performed a brief naming ceremony to declare him a Muslim, then gave him 40 dollars and some bread.

But while he went to fetch a jug of milk, the man had vanished.

Sohail said he did not intend to press charges against the would- be thief.