A Russian man was recently arrested after allegedly being tricked into throwing a Molotov Cocktail in a Moscow bank by scammers who also relieved him of his life savings.

A few days ago, Moscow police arrested a 48-year-old man from Ruza, a town in the Moscow region of Russia, for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail in a Sberbank branch in the Russian capital. Bank employees were able to put out the flames before the firefighters arrived on the scene and police quickly identified and detained the perpetrator. But this was far from an open-shut case; the more the suspect tried to explain, the crazier his story got, and by the end, investigators didn’t know whether to throw the book at the guy or just feel sorry for him…

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The Russian man, whose name has not been disclosed to protect his privacy, told police that, a while back, he had been contacted by someone who introduced themselves as a “representative of Russia’s largest bank” and began telling him that his account had been linked to suspicious activity.

This bank rep was somehow able to convince the account holder that scammers inside the bank were trying to steal funds from his account and that the best way to prevent that from happening was to transfer the funds in secure accounts overseen by trustworthy bank employees.

Over a number of days, the unsuspecting man transferred all his financial savings – around 1 million rubles (over $20,000) – into several accounts provided by the alleged Sberbank representative. Usually, it is at this stage that scammers cut all communication with their victims and disappear with their hard-earned money. However, in this case, the fraudsters decided to have a bit more fun with the poor man.

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After confirming that the man’s money was now secure in their accounts, the scammers proceeded to convince their victim that the only way to expose the people who wanted to steal his money was to set fire to the Sberbank branch they operated from. They were even nice enough to provide the man with instructions on how to make his own Molotov cocktail.

Believe it or not, the man actually followed said instructions and, after making sure that no clients were inside the bank branch, he opened the door and threw the Molotov cocktail inside. It’s unclear how this was supposed to expose the scammers, but that’s what he told investigators.

This whole story sounds like the crazy explanation of a man trying to justify premeditated arson, but incredibly enough, the man’s story checked out, according to Russian news agency, RIA Novosti. The man will most likely be accused of property damage, among others, and the chances of recovering his life savings are very slim.