MILLIONAIRE WHO STOLE AGED BEGGAR’S CLOTHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 310, 22 March 1928, Page 17

MILLIONAIRE WHO STOLE AGED BEGGAR’S CLOTHES

WALKED IN HIS SLEEP The strange story of a millionaire who stole a beggar’s clothes comes from Budapest, where a prosperous business man and owner of a luxurious house in the suburbs has been brought before a police court. Evidence was given that the accused, arrayed in a faultless dress suit, had wandered one night into a station waiting-room, where a 72-year-old beggar'and his 76-year-old wife were lying asleep. Shortly after midnight the station officials were alarmed to hear shrieks for help coming from the old woman. They rushed into the waiting-room and were astonished to see the elegant figure of the millionaire disappearing through another door with the tattered coat and trousers of the aged beggar in his grasp. The wealthy prisoner has now explained to the magistrate that he is a sleep-walker. He said that when he sat down in the waiting-room he fell into a doze and dreamed that he was sitting stark naked on the station bench. Overcome by confusion at his imagined predicament, he leaped up, and still in his dream, grabbed the first clothes which came to hand, which happened to be those of the sleeping beggar. In court he expressed his regret to the latter for any inconvenience he might have caused him, offering to compensate him in full. But the court apparently considers that millionaire sleep-walkers with disordered digestions are as much to be discouraged as common pickpockets, and has sentenced the wealthy trouser-snatcher to two months and 21 days’ imprisonment.