In Kočani, on the night before St. George's Day, at the church of „Saint Great Martyr George", something landed somewhere between crime and comedy. A man tried to force his way into the church. After failing, he ran. And got himself stuck on the metal fence around the same church.

Police, the territorial fire unit from Kočani, and the emergency medical service all turned up at the scene. All three services - for one thief stuck on a church fence. That's what people around here mean when they say „God is watching".

Could anyone have written a better script for how bad ideas end in a small Balkan town? You break into a church. You fail. You run. You climb the fence of that very church. You get stuck. And the police, the fire brigade and the ambulance have to peel you off - the same evening before the religious holiday.

Behind the funny headline sits a more serious question. Who tried to steal from a church in a small provincial town, and why? What was being kept inside that was worth taking? Was it the parish money for the holiday? Was it the silver on the icons?

In recent years, church burglaries in Macedonia have been on the rise. Some are linked to specialised crews targeting icons and relics for the illegal European market. Others - small-time jobs by some unfortunate soul who doesn't know where else to turn, so he picks the first padlock he finds.

This one clearly belongs to the second category. God saw him. And on the eve of St. George's Day, made the point.

The police pulled him off. Medics looked him over. The case will go through the courts. But for the people of Kočani, this is already a kafana story - the one they'll be retelling after the May 6 parade, in front of those crossing themselves before the icon of „St. George".

The Balkan story never stops surprising you. Sometimes it's tragic. Sometimes it's funny. And sometimes - like this one from Kočani - both at the same time.