The thief was wearing a menacing mask and wielding a bat — but to a Long Island store owner, he was simply a charity case.
In an amazing act of compassion and forgiveness, bodega owner Mohammad “Mo” Sohail first disarmed a would-be assailant who came into his Shirley shop — and then gave him $40 and a loaf of bread.
Sohail said his saga — captured on dramatic, video-surveillance footage — began at 12:35 a.m. on May 21, when the thug entered his convenience store in Shirley.
“Give me your money! Give me your money!” the man started screaming at Sohail, a 47-year-old Muslim immigrant from Pakistan.
A shaken Sohail told the bat-wielding thug that he had cash behind the counter — but instead whipped out a 9mm rifle.
“I said, ‘Drop the [bat] and get down,’ ” Sohail said.
The thief, not knowing Sohail’s gun wasn’t loaded, thought he didn’t have a prayer.
He fell to his knees, clasped his hands and started sobbing, explaining that his family had fallen on hard times.
“He started crying, saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I have no job. I have no food. My family is hungry,’ ” Sohail said.
It was enough to deeply move the merciful Muslim.
“Promise me that you’ll never rob anybody again,” Sohail sternly told the man.
After the crying thief promised, Sohail went behind the counter, withdrew two $20 bills from the cash register and tossed them to the still-kneeling man.
He also gave the thief a loaf of bread.
The man then stunned Sohail by saying, “You are a good man. I want to be a Muslim like you.”
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“I said, ‘Do you really want to do that?’ ” Sohail said. “He said, ‘Yes,’ so I told him to stand up and raise his hand.”
The robber did and repeated after Sohail a Muslim profession of faith. “And I said, ‘Congratulations,’ ” Sohail said.
The shopkeeper then turned around to fetch some milk for the thief. But by the time he returned, the man had fled — with his bat.
“I felt sorry for this man,” Sohail said. “If you have a good job and a good life, you don’t try to rob stores, so I just try to do what a good Muslim would do.”
Sohail said he bought the gun in 2000 to protect his store, Shirley Express. Cops said the weapon was legal.
Sohail said that if the cops ever find the robber, he won’t press charges.
And “if he wants to come to my store, he can come back — but just don’t come back with a mask,” Sohail said.