DUBLIN – When Stefan Boyle broke into a Dublin mosque armed with a knife to steal whatever he could get, he did not expect to meet the Muslim caretaker Ali Yassine, who sat down with him and shared scrambled eggs after finding him hiding under a table inside the mosque.

The story began when Yassine, a caretaker in the mosque, spotted Boyle hiding under a table in a mosque and told him to leave, Irish Times reported.

Boyle then lunged at him with a knife, nicking the victim, before he tried to escape out a window.

Yassine kicked the burglar in self-defense and told him to relax. He then made him scrambled eggs and sat down with him while Boyle told him his life story.

After 30-minute conversation with Yassine, Boyle left, taking with him two mobile phones he stole from Yassine’s neighboring home.

On the second day, Yassine was in the city center organizing for his phones to be blocked, he happened to bump into Boyle. He asked the man if he had taken the phones and the burglar handed them back to him and apologized.

Boyle, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary of Ali Hussain House, Milltown Bridge, Dundrum.

Judge Karen O’Connor noted Boyle had been assessed as suitable for residential treatment and said she would adjourn sentencing until January to allow him take up a place when it become available.

Boyle said he had got on well with the victim, Yassine, describing him as “a good guy” and apologized.