WHEN Zou Bin’s phone was stolen by a man with whom he’d shared a taxi ride in China’s Hunan province, he sent a text to the  “I can assure you that I will find you. Send me back the phone to the address below if you are sensible.”

Mr Bin wanted his phone and, more importantly, the contacts on it. He sent another message: “Look through the contact numbers in my mobile and you will know what trade I am in.”

pparently Mr Zou works in the “drinks industry”. Why that would prick the thief’s concsience is not a angle investigated in any reports. Is “drinks industry” a euphemism for somwthing terrifying, like the Mafia, police or Noel Edmonds Fan Club?

Not long after, Mr Zou received a letter containing his SIM card and 11 pages of carefully handwritten contact numbers. He said he was astonished by the result. “It would take a while to write from one to 1,000, let alone names and a whole string of digits. I suppose [the thief’s] hand has swollen.”