The thieves we tend to feature in this column don’t tend to be the brightest sparks, but this man takes the cake. Or rather, bus.

Last month, the People's Court of Vĩnh Long City in the southern province of the same name sentenced Nguyễn Linh M to two years in prison for stealing the vehicle.

M, 25, told police that on November, 2018 when walking near a bus station he saw a bus parked with its keys in it, sparking this devious cad into action.

After checking no one could see him, our villain pulled the bus window down and climbed into the vehicle.

Kleptomaniacal desires satiated for the time being, you might think M would take the bus somewhere safe, store it and sell it later. But you’d be wrong.

Instead, he decided to drive it to An Sương Bus Station, HCM City to pick up passengers and make some cash the hard way.

Unfortunately for him, he soon crashed the bus into Thiềng Đức Bridge, breaking some lights and part of the railing.

Meanwhile, Nguyễn Trung H, the bus’s owner, had already raised the alarm with the police.

Thanks to some swift detective work, police deduced that the crashed bus probably had something to do with the stolen vehicle and detained him.

So to all the aspiring thieves that read this column, make sure you steal something you can actually sell whenever you’re performing your dastardly dealings, otherwise you’ll look a right mug. — VNS