I suppose it's a reflection on the society we live in.

See a tempting looking bag and nick it... just like that. What do I mean? I'll tell you. Last Friday my wife and I decided to make an expedition to Valletta and - seeing as how parking in our capital city is harder than making a successful moon landing - we decided to go by bus.

My wife had an appointment in Il-Belt, so I decided to accompany her and get some Christmas shopping done. Missions accomplished we met up again for a coffee and a return bus journey to Mosta. So far... so good. Getting on the bus at the Valletta terminus was no problem. There were a few other passengers - and gathering up my shopping bag, we easily found a seat in the lower part of the interior that enabled us to sit together. When we departed the terminus there were no passengers seated behind us.

However, when we reached Msida the picture changed; the bus filled up with people. Many of whom were demonstrably not Maltese. Behind us sat two, what appeared to be, Filipino ladies, chattering away and then scanning their mobile phones. Nothing abnormal there, then. The bus carried on towards Mosta in reasonably heavy traffic. As we left the Msida bus stop I decided to place my shopping bag onto the floor of the bus... big mistake.

When we finally came to alight in Constitution Street, Mosta I reached for my bag - only to find it missing. In it was the gift I had just purchased and which I had intended to give to my wife for Christmas. Hey ho! The gift was a fairly large book and not cheap. Clearly the only people who were near enough to my shopping bag were the two ladies that I have already described and who by now, had alighted earlier from the bus.

My initial reaction, anger, gave way to resignation. I thought; "That's it... my intended gift has been nicked, think again." My wife knew I was getting her a book for Christmas, but not which book. She decided to pursue the theft by first phoning Transport Malta... who informed her that they were unable to help and suggested she phone the police. She did so and got a very helpful copper at the Valletta police station, who told her to contact the Mosta police and not to abandon her pursuit of the bag and its contents. He also informed her that there was CCTV on all the busses and someone stealing from one of them could very easily have been spotted on the camera. So... my wife did indeed make a report with the Mosta police and we await developments - or not. Watch this space...

Since this unfortunate incident I have been informed that the authorities are aware of quite a large increase in crimes committed on route busses. So beware all commuters and indeed anyone who uses public transport. I am old enough to remember the time when not too many people even bothered to lock their front doors, theft was a rare occurrence. In Gozo people would even leave their muftieh keys in their doors, so confident were they of their neighbours honesty.

But the aspect of our incident that gets to me is the fact that someone who is a guest in our country, is also a chancer and... there's no other word for it... a thief. What a pity.