A guilt trip

The guilt-stricken pensioner tracked down the shopkeeper concerned and then drove 50 miles to apologise in person and hand over a packet of the orange-filled cakes that cost 92 pence – a far cry from half-a-century ago when they were priced at around one shilling or five new pence.

To Mr Bibby, the money is immaterial. The guilty conscience that he's carried for so long has, probably, been a far more effective punishment than if he'd been sacked from the shop in question, where he worked as a schoolboy, or if he had been punished by the courts.

Yet, while the two men can joke now about the theft, it must be remembered that shoplifting is no laughing matter – quite the contrary –and that every such occurrence actually increases the likelihood of law-abiding customers having to pay more for items at the till.