Foiled Robber Leaves Store With $40, Bread

Shopkeeper pulls gun on would-be perp, who begs for mercy, food
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2009 10:19 AM CDT

A man approached a Long Island convenience store counter with a baseball bat, demanding cash; the shop owner whipped out his shotgun, prompting the man’s tearful pleas for mercy. The impassioned display worked, Newsday reports: Mohammad Sohail took pity on the robber and gave him $40 and a loaf of bread. “He was saying: 'I have no money. I have no food. I have no job. I have to take care of my family,’” Sohail said.

Sohail told the man never to make another robbery attempt. Seeing the shopkeeper’s compassion, the man said he “wanted to be a Muslim just like me,” Sohail said. They prayed together, then Sohail said “'Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari,’” he told CNN. Police are looking for the man, but Sohail isn’t pressing charges. He says he understands the man’s plight.
(More crime stories.)

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