A Muslim who was attacked by a knife-wielding robber in a mosque cooked him breakfast to calm him down and then sat to hear his life story.
Ali Yassine spotted Stefan Boyle, 28, hiding under a table in a mosque in Dundrum, Dublin, and told him to leave.
Boyle lunged at him and nicked him with a knife before trying to escape out of a window, the Irish Independent reported in May.
Mr Yassine, who works as a caretaker in the mosque, kicked the burglar in self defence and then told him to relax.
He went on to make him scrambled eggs and sat down to let Boyle tell him about he he was homeless, had been in and out of prison and was having problems with his girlfriend.
Boyle pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the burglary of Ali Hussain House on 2 November, 2016. He has 110 previous convictions, of those, 63 are for burglary.
He will be allowed to attend residential drug treatment before he is sentenced, the Irish Times reports.
The prosecution heard that Mr Yassine did not realise until after the robber had left that he had stolen two phones from his bedroom in a building attached to the mosque.
When Mr Yassine was in the city centre organising for his phones to be blocked the next day, he bumped into Boyle, who handed the phones back to him and apologised.
Boyle told police he got on well with the victim, describing him as a "good guy," and apologised.
He said he wanted to get money for drugs and had forgotten he had taken the phones during his 30-minute conversation over breakfast.
He also said he did not have the €30 (£27) needed to unlock both phones.
Judge Karen O'Connor told Boyle: “This is your very very final chance.”
