Police in Kenya have arrested a 35-year-old preacher accused of stealing his neighbour’s two cows.

Joash Wanyonyi was on Friday, October 16, caught with the stolen cows inside a forest near his home.

Residents, led by Village Elder Samwel Luvembe, said Wanyonyi stripped naked and tied a rope to a tree, while saying he wanted to commit suicide because he had broken one of the Ten Biblical Commandments, which frowns upon stealing.

Wanyonyi said he stole the cows so that he could take them as dowry to his wife’s home.

The owners of the domestic animals, Thomas Namayi Ambunya and Laban Andugu Mbayaji, said they woke up Friday and found their cows missing.

The two embarked on searching for the stolen animals in the nearby Market.

“Later Friday morning, a neighbour called and informed me that the animals had been found tied in Sichirayi Forest, and that a local preacher had confessed to making away with the animals,” said Namayi.