'Ah..The French politesse!' by K.J.S.Chatrath

The headline of a small news item made me chuckle. It read "A kiss gives away French jewel thief". Let us read what happened.
A jewel thief in France who kissed the owner of a jewellery shop during a robbery was nabbed after police analysed the DNA on the victim's cheek.
The robber had kissed the 56-year-old woman apologetically after gagging her for hours.According to the French newspaper Le Parisien,two masked men tied the jeweller up in her home last year.The men reportedly poured petrol over the woman's head and threatened to light it unless she cooperated. Then one of the thieves went to the shop,stealing cash and jewels,while the other stood guard over the woman. Then before releasing her,the man planted a kiss on her cheek.
She then alerted the police.A forensic team swabbed her cheek and the mans DNA was found in the national genetic print database.He was traced to a jail in Nimes (in France) where he had been arrested on suspicion of thefts.
Only the French and the Francophiles will understand it and say softly 'Ah..Quelle Politesse!' or 'C'est normal!'
I too had my taste of the French 'politesse', though not of the kissing type, decades back when my pocket got picked at one of the Metro stations in Paris. Within seconds a young person appeared and handed me back my purse, sans money of course. Incidentally there was no money in it.
I then came to know that when someone's wallet gets picked in France and the wallet contains the passport or the French Carte d'Identite', the thief drops the passport in the nearest letter box, while keeping the cash. The equally polite French postal department delivers that passport to the Embassy of the concerned country. Which in turn returns it to the tourist of their country who lost it.
You may like to see my write up on 'The Pickpokets of Paris: http://francophilesonly.blogspot.in/2014/05/the-pickpockets-of-paris-by-kjschatrath.html....
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