A university student who recently had his laptop stolen allegedly received an apology email from the thief, in which the person tried to justify the crime by claiming that they were really poor.

The apologetic email went viral on Twitter after Birmingham-resident Stevie Valentine shared a screengrab of it captioned “So my flat mates laptop got stolen today, please pree what the thief sent him”. The thief starts off by writing that he/she is “very, very sorry” for stealing the laptop, and then tries to justify the crime by stating that he/she is “extremely poor” and “needed the money”. The alleged laptop thief then goes on to write that he/she could have also taken the victim’s phone and wallet, but chose not to. “I left your phone and wallet, so I hope that slightly makes up for something,” the email reads.

Photo: @StevieBlessed/Twitter

Doesn’t that sound like the nicest thief ever? But wait, it gets better. Hoping to make amends, the thief even offers to send the laptop owner any important files he might need.

“I can see you are a university student. If there is any files on here such as university work on here that you need, let me know and I will send them to you here,” the thief wrote before ending the email with “Once again I am sorry.”

Stevie Valentine’s tweet has been liked over 26,000 times and has received thousands of comments. The feedback has been mixed, with some Twitter users going as far as to say that they like the thief, and others claiming that his extreme poverty doesn’t justify the crime.

“At least he was kind enough to explain his situation, the owner’s files are not lost and he knows his laptop is with a nice person,” one Twitter user wrote.

“I actually like this thief,” another person wrote.

Others weren’t so impressed with the thief’s apologetic attitude. “I’ll hold up a petrol station and just kindly explain to them that I need the money,” a person commented on the viral tweet.