A GOOD Samaritan came to the rescue of a singing friar by outwitting a thief.

The generous citizen, who wishes to re-main anonymous, bought a hoard of equipment stolen from St Francis' Roman Catholic Church, specifically so he could return it to the police.

Father Francis Maple was upset to find his mini-disc players and portable TV taken from his van outside the Grosvenor Street Church, last Wednesday, after someone had left his van unlocked.

'My heart dropped,' he said. 'My mini-disc player, which helps with my backing, my spare mini-disc player and three microphones were stolen.'

His stock of mini-discs, which he had personally recorded, were also missing from their holdall.

'When I found they had gone I said to myself, 'don't get annoyed or excited, they have gone for good and you'll never see them again',' said Fr Francis.

Luckily, the thief had been unable to carry everything, and had only moved the mini-discs from their home.

'The mini-discs are irreplaceable - I could never again have bought them back. You'd have to go back to the studio and that would have cost another £1,000,' said Fr Francis.

But the friar, who recently raised more than £3,500 in a charity marathon walk and needs the equipment for concerts, was not left empty-handed for long.

On return from a concert the next day, he received a letter from Cheshire police.

It told how a kindly stranger had been walking down Nicholas Street on Wednesday evening when he encountered the thief who was trying to sell the stolen goods.

The thief first asked for £200, then £100, but the stranger, believing the goods to be stolen, only offered £20.

The thief accepted and the kind-hearted stranger brought the goods straight to the police station, where they were soon traced to Fr Francis.

'In the letter to me the police said the man says if you want to give him £20 he'd be very grateful but if you don't he's very happy you have your goods back,' said Fr Francis.

'So I phoned him up and said thank you so much but I'm going to give you £50 because all those things would cost £700 to get back.'

However, despite the friar's best efforts the stranger would not take the extra money, only accepting an extra £10, which he gave to his daughter.

'There are still a lot of good people in the world,' said Fr Francis. 'I was astounded at his quick-thinking and generosity. It's a sad story with a happy ending.'