A would-be burglar in Rome was arrested when, during a robbery at an elderly home, he stopped to read a book about Greek mythology according to Italian media.

The 38-year-old reportedly entered an apartment in the Prati district of the Italian capital through a balcony but was distracted after picking up a book about Homer’s Iliad from the bedside table. The 71-year-old owner is said to have woken up and confronted the alleged thief, who was engrossed in the book.

The news of the failed break-in attracted the attention of the book’s authorGiovanni Nucci who told local media that he wanted to send the man a copy to “finish” reading.

“It’s fantastic. I’d like to find the person caught red-handed and give them the book, because they’ll be caught halfway through reading it. I wish he could finish it. It’s a surreal story, full of humanity,” the author of The Gods at Six O’Clock, which analyzes the Iliad from the perspective of the gods, told Il Messaggero (via the BBC).

He also mentioned that his favorite god is Hermes, the patron of thieves as well as literature. “It’s clear, everything fits,” he joked.

After being taken by surprise, the thief then tried to escape by leaving the same balcony, but was caught a short time later. He reportedly told police he went up to the building to visit an acquaintance while in possession of a bag containing expensive clothing that had been stolen from another home earlier that evening.