A female shopkeeper in Shenzhen’s Baoan District refrained from calling the cops on August 9 when she saw a woman steal four large bottles of milk, Anhui Television reports.

Her reason? She didn’t want to damage the thief’s self-esteem. The thief and her accomplices have gone on to reoffend and the shopkeeper has expressed her regret at failing to call the cops.

Below you can watch footage of the thief and her alleged accomplices entering the Ganghuo shop in Shajin one-by-one. At 40 seconds you can see her helping herself to four bottles of milk.

She was then confronted by the shopkeeper who explained that she would give her a chance to wipe the slate clean. However, when told that the thief was part of a wanted gang of petty criminals which had gone onto reoffend and was still at large, the shopkeeper spoke of her regret.

She said she had learned from the mistake and would always call the cops on shoplifters in the future.